Trump keeps dodging accountability despite 'particular egregious' acts: expert

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during the American Business Forum Miami at the Kaseya Center Arena in Miami, Florida, U.S. November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

When Donald Trump narrowly defeated Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, he was facing four criminal indictments — two federal, one in Georgia, and one in New York State (which found Trump being convicted on 34 criminal counts).

Then-special counsel Jack Smith considered both of his Trump indictments dead, citing the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) policy against prosecuting a sitting president. And he asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to dismiss his election interference case, which she did without prejudice.

Meanwhile, the election interference/RICO case in Georgia, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, was on life support. But it officially died when, on Wednesday, November 26, Judge Scott McAfee dismissed all charges. And supervising prosecutor Peter Skandalakis argued that keeping the case alive was pointless, writing, "There is no realistic prospect that a sitting President will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial on the allegations in this indictment. Donald J. Trump's current term as President of the United States of America does not expire until January 20, 2029."

In a biting article published by Salon the following day — Thanksgiving 2025 — political scientist Austin Sarat cites the Georgia dismissal as the latest example of President Trump continuing to dodge accountability despite "particularly egregious" acts.

"While good news for Trump," Sarat says of the decision, "it was bad news for the rule of law and history itself. Peter Skandalakis' decision not only lets the president get away with his outrageous effort at election interference in a critical swing state, but his rendition of what Trump did and why he did it muddies the historical record. As the New York Times noted, Skandalakis, who is the executive director of the state's nonpartisan prosecutor council, 'shredded the case originally brought by Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, taking it apart charge by charge in a 22-page filing.'"

After losing Georgia to Democratic nominee Joe Biden in 2020, Trump tried to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" him enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the Peach State. But Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both conservative Republicans, adamantly maintained that Biden won the state fair and square — much to Trump's chagrin.

"When Raffensperger resisted his entreaties," Sarat notes, "Trump threatened him. If he didn't determine that thousands of ballots in Fulton County were cast illegally or destroyed, the secretary would be subject to criminal liability…. Surely, this was one of the most infamous exchanges in which a person serving as president of the United States had ever participated. It was also criminal. That's what a grand jury found when it indicted the president and his accomplices on racketeering charges in August 2023."

Sarat, who teaches jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, laments that once again, Trump isn't being held accountable for his actions.

"If there were indeed different plausible interpretations of what the president did and why he did it," Sarat argues, "resolving those differences should have been left for a jury to decide following a full adversarial trial. Instead of letting that process play out, Skandalakis has whitewashed history and deprived all of us, and future generations, of the chance to make up our own minds about what did — and could have — happened in Georgia in 2020 and 2021."

Austin Sarat's full article for Salon is available at this link.

From Your Site Articles