Special counsel Jack Smith is winding down his federal prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump and a New York judge is set to decide this week if Mr. Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial should be dismissed ahead of any possible sentencing.

Even if the judge weren’t to dismiss the case, legal scholars predict the judge likely won’t be sending the president-elect off to serve time in prison.

But there’s still one legal battle that could continue to plague Mr. Trump into his new administration in the coming year — the criminal prosecution over election meddling in the 2020 election out of Fulton County, Georgia.

“Fani Willis is a formidable prosecutor and politician,” said B. Michael Mears, a professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, who noted she just won reelection earlier this month by an overwhelming majority. “She feels she has a mandate based upon the public.”

“I would not suspect she would be dropping these charges,” he added.

In August 2023, Fulton County indicted Mr. Trump and 18 others for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. The state claims that the defendants violated Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in trying to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow official victory in that race.

The case has been mostly on hold while an appeals court reviews Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ decision to appoint Nathan Wade as her special prosecutor on the case, as she had a romantic relationship with him. The appeals court is weighing whether to remove Ms. Willis from the case.

A trial judge said she could stay but Mr. Wade could no longer oversee the prosecution. But even if the appeals court upholds that move, It’s likely Ms. Willis will continue to prosecute the former president.

Not even a pardon from Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp can stop her. In Georgia, the governor does not have the power to issue pardons. It is up to the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles, which is composed of five board members appointed by the governor.

They would only consider a pardon if a defendant petitions for one, generally after a conviction and sentence.

If the appeals court kicks Ms. Willis off the case, then it would be up to the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys Council. That is a a nonpartisan agency that looks after state resources for district attorneys. If a district attorney does not want to take over Ms. Willis’ case, the charges could be dropped altogether.

That’s what happened with Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, whom Ms. Willis charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election results after Mr. Jones planned to sign a certificate stating Mr. Trump had won.

But it emerged that Ms. Willis had hosted a fundraiser for Mr. Jones’s Democratic opponent and she was removed from prosecuting him. Pete Skandalakis with the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia decided not to pursue the prosecution, according to The Associated Press.

Putting his legal fate in the hands of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council might be Mr. Trump’s best hope of seeing this prosecution come to an end.

Federal prosecutions and New York’s verdict

At the federal level, Mr. Smith has already asked a federal appeals court to pause his request to revive his case against Mr. Trump over the handling of classified documents at the president’s Florida home at Mar-a-Lago. The case had been dismissed by a federal judge in Florida in July, holding that Mr. Smith did not have standing to bring the charges since he was a private citizen when he was appointed.

Mr. Smith’s team told the court that the government needed “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy,” adding that they would “inform the Court of the result of its deliberations” by Dec. 2.

And the federal judge handling Mr. Smith’s second prosecution of Mr. Trump over his activities challenging the 2020 election in Washington also canceled remaining deadlines on the docket at Mr. Smith’s request.

Mr. Smith is evaluating how to wind the cases down, and plans to step down before Mr. Trump takes office, according to The Associated Press.

In New York’s state courts, Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money prosecution of the president-elect, is expected to decide Tuesday whether to dismiss Mr. Trump’s conviction earlier this year in light of his reelection.

Emil Bove, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, had argued that the case must be tossed “to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, acknowledged they needed time to consider “competing interests.”

“These are unprecedented circumstances,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo in an email to the court.

Mr. Trump was convicted in May by a Manhattan jury over falsifying business records. The state had argued Mr. Trump tried to cover up $130,000 in payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels to get her to stay quiet ahead of the 2016 election, as she claimed to have had an affair with him years prior.

He has denied the affair or any wrongdoing.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.