No RICO. No Suave.
The quiet dismissal of the Fulton County RICO case on November 26, 2025, was predictable not because of who the defendants were, but because of who the prosecutor was. The final remaining state case against Donald Trump collapsed with a one-sentence order — a mercifully short epitaph for a prosecution that had long been legally unsound, ethically compromised, and strategically incoherent.
This case was never principally about Trump’s conduct. It was about Fani Willis’s ambitions and her attempt to stretch the Georgia RICO statute far past its constitutional and statutory limits.
As I previously stated here on PeachPundit, “the chaotic management and multiple missteps in the prosecution of the case by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office makes it unlikely that it can regroup for a successful prosecution.” That prediction has now been vindicated.
I. The Legal Foundation Was Cracked From Day One
Georgia’s RICO statute (O.C.G.A. § 16-14-4) is broad — intentionally so — but it still requires (1) an enterprise, (2) a pattern, and (3) predicate acts that are crimes under independent Georgia law.
Willis’s indictment failed this test in at least three critical ways:
1. Many alleged “overt acts” were not crimes at all
Press conferences, tweets, legal memos, and political persuasion are not predicate acts. They may be obnoxious. They may even be wrong. But they are constitutionally protected.
As the late Justice Scalia warned, RICO “must not become a prosecutorial tool to criminalize political differences.” That warning went unheeded in Fulton County. (see National Organization for Women v. Scheidler (510 U.S. 249 (1994))
2. The alleged enterprise was impermissibly amorphous
Willis’s theory effectively argued that a sitting president, his lawyers, his advisors, state electors, local activists, and even the public were part of an “enterprise.” That’s not how RICO works.
RICO prosecutions depend on clearly defined, purposeful criminal organizations. This indictment treated political actors with shared interests as a gang. Courts do not permit that.
3. Presidential immunity loomed over every charge
As I have previously cautioned here on PeachPundit:
“A prosecutor, like Willis, will have to first establish whether an alleged crime is an ‘official’ act of the President … or a completely extra-presidential act.”
Willis did not and could not do so.
Any attempt to prosecute a president for “official acts,” even post-term, invites dismissal — and after Trump v. United States (2024), the bar is even higher. Willis ignored that reality entirely.
II. Coffee County Was Legitimate — But Willis Buried It in Politics
If Willis had filed a narrow, discrete case concerning Coffee County’s mishandling of voting systems, that case may have actually stood.
There were meaningful, fact-based, evidence-driven concerns there, and it is the part of the case that received several early “guilty” pleas.
Instead, Coffee County became a footnote crammed inside a 98-page political novel.
By attaching one legitimate issue to two dozen weak or non-existent criminal theories, Willis ensured none of it could survive.
The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia (PAC) confirmed this implicitly. In Pete Skandalakis’s motion to dismiss, he explained the state was abandoning the case “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality,” and cited the overwhelming evidentiary workload and legal deficiencies. (Washington Post)
Translation for lawyers:
This case was untriable.
Not “hard.” Not “complicated.”
Untriable.
III. The Ethical Collapse Made Prosecution Impossible
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis after finding her relationship with her hand-picked special prosecutor created a “significant appearance of impropriety.”
The court went further, criticizing the remedy the trial judge attempted to fashion:
“The remedy crafted by the trial court … did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pre-trial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.” (Georgia Recorder)
That language is devastating.
The appellate court essentially concluded that the charges themselves may have been tainted by Willis’s conflict.
As a lawyer, I cannot overstate this:
Once a prosecutor’s impartiality is compromised, the case is compromised.
In a high-stakes RICO prosecution, that is a fatal wound.
The ethical lapses weren’t procedural hiccups — they were structural explosions.
IV. The PAC Didn’t “Give Up” — They Cleaned Up
Willis’s defenders now argue that Skandalakis simply lacked the courage to pursue a difficult case. The record says otherwise.
Skandalakis inherited:
- an ethically tainted indictment
- a defendant who is a sitting president
- constitutional immunity issues
- a wildly overbroad RICO theory
- 101 boxes and terabytes of evidence
- and a prosecution poisoned by political grandstanding
He did what neutral prosecutors do when confronted with a fundamentally flawed case:
He ended it.
This was not “letting Trump off.”
This was acknowledging that the law, the facts, and the ethics were never on Willis’s side.
There is a saying among lawyers:
- When the law is against you, argue the facts.
- When the facts are against you, argue the law.
- When both the facts and the law are against you, call the other side names.
That is certainly what Willis’s defenders are doing now. The absolute ridiculousness of that line of thinking is not ONE DA, Democratic, Republican, or Independent, was willing to take over the case.
V. Georgia Must Learn From This Debacle
The collapse of the Fulton County RICO case is not an indictment of the rule of law.
It is an indictment of misused prosecutorial power.
Georgia must draw lessons:
1. RICO is a powerful tool, not a political cudgel
Legislatures should consider clarifying the statute’s limits to prevent future abuse.
2. Ethical oversight of prosecutors must be strengthened
No prosecutor should be able to derail a statewide legal process through personal misconduct.
3. High-profile cases should be subject to independent review before indictment
Not after.
The justice system can withstand many things.
What it cannot withstand is ambition masquerading as accountability.
“When prosecutors prioritize ambition — media coverage, historical notoriety, career advancement — over discipline, restraint, and respect for evidentiary limits, they risk turning the justice system into a spectacle rather than an institution.”
That is precisely what happened here.
The Case Didn’t Fail Because Trump Is Powerful — It Failed Because Willis Was Careless
Coffee County warranted a real investigation.
But the RICO case was never real.
It was a legal overreach built on a political foundation, and it collapsed exactly the way legally unserious cases do.
Georgia deserves better prosecutors.
Georgia deserves better cases.
And Georgia deserves a justice system that pursues truth — not headlines.
