Prosecutor kills election interference case

We have some breaking news for you. A Georgia prosecutor has dropped the entire election interference case against President Trump and his allies relating to alleged actions taken after the 2020 election. Let's bring in CBS News justice reporter Jake Rosen. Jake, thank you for your time today. What can you tell us about this? Well, Mugo, we know that this case was handed off from Fani Willis, who brought this case initially, because she was removed from the case because of the romantic relationship she had with the lead prosecutor on it. This resulted in not just President Trump getting elected and him being immune to some parts of the prosecution, really going on trial physically during his administration for the next four years. But at the same time, Mugo, what it did was allow the government to open up whether or not there would be another prosecutor to take this case. It was ordered by a judge a couple of months ago. We covered it then. And a man named Peter Skandalakis took over. He was the head of the Georgia Prosecutors Association. He said he was willing to do it after he couldn't find anybody else to take on this case. And in a memo today that was reported on by our associates here at CBS News in Atlanta, they're saying-- and according to this statement-- Skandalakis, this new prosecutor, cites a lack of time and resources to take on this case, and also cites that President Trump, because he's currently sitting in the White House, could not actually be put on trial until at least 2029. He said, quote, "To serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality, this case needed to be dropped." And we just got a statement from President Trump's legal team and including the lead defense attorney in this case-- I should say Steven Sadow-- who said, "A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare." We are also out waiting to hear a reaction from potentially Fani Willis. And we'll see what President Trump has to say himself over this holiday weekend as it approaches. But certainly, quite a monumental time. This was the one active legal case against President Trump. His allies are still on trial in some other jurisdictions around the country. Specifically, Mugo, President Trump couldn't pardon himself if this had actually gone to trial because it's a state case. He couldn't pardon his allies. It's something that kind of was a live ball again for a couple of weeks, and now has officially been put to bed. A judge will need to sign off on this. But given that the lead prosecutor is saying they need to drop the charges, certainly a monumental time for President Trump, as he's not going to face any further consequences in Georgia. You'll remember that infamous phone call with the Georgia Secretary of State that was caught on a recording back in 2020, 2021, around the election, where he told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him the votes to overturn the election results in that state, so he would win the electoral college votes, which would have swung the whole election. That stemmed into this massive prosecution brought against many allies, and many of which, because it's been so long ago, have actually pled guilty to charges in this to avoid this prolonged legal battle. President Trump obviously didn't. And here we are today.

Yeah. Sounds like a good Thanksgiving present for him there. Jake, we also understand there's an FBI inquiry into six Democratic lawmakers after they made a video urging service members not to follow illegal orders. What can you tell us about that? Well, that's right. We know that the FBI has contacted the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms to potentially try and speak with these active members of Congress. There are four House members said that they were approached earlier this week. In a statement, they said they stand by their decision to release this video. You can see them there saying that in their former capacity as military members, urging current military intelligence community members to not follow any orders that they view or deem to be potentially illegal. President Trump has called this seditious conspiracy and has called for these people to be not just investigated, but in Senator Mark Kelly's case, to be potentially court martialed for these congressmen. He's called for them to be potentially put on trial for death or treason, as you can see in the all-caps statement right there. What we do know, Mugo, in just a more concrete way, is that there are a lot of hurdles to potentially court martial Mark Kelly, and that while this is, in President Trump's mind, some kind of seditious behavior, sedition involves violence. Sedition involves more than one people who are grouping together to potentially try and physically overthrow the United States government. This was simply just them speaking out on a social media video. But it's unclear what the FBI could potentially bring and refer to the Justice Department in terms of charges. But certainly to either embarrass these members or to draw attention to their comments and try to condemn them through using the FBI and the Department of Justice is certainly the first step of its kind that we've seen in this administration, as we've seen kind of the other Trump legal-- the foes of President Trump and his administration either get investigated or be put on trial, in the case of James Comey and Letitia James, for speaking out against the president.

And in the meantime, what are lawmakers saying about this inquiry? Well, we've heard from Senator Elissa Slotkin, who's one of those people who made this video. Here's what she had to say. The president's reaction and the use of the FBI against us is exactly why we made the video. He believes in using the federal government against his perceived adversaries. And the four congressmen who also said that they were contacted by the FBI also said they're going to continue to stand by the Constitution and continue their activities. Whether these lawmakers sit down potentially with the FBI is another question we don't quite have the answers to. And what the results of that, which they'll likely speak out about publicly, will be are yet to be determined, as we head into the weekend. All right. We'll see what comes next on this one. Jake Rosen, thank you so much for your time today.