Fani Willis Possesses Evidence Vindicating Georgia’s Alternate Electors

Fulton County DA Fani Willis has evidence exonerating Republicans she’s targeting in her 98-page Georgia indictment.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis possesses evidence that exonerates several Republicans she’s targeting in her legal crusade against former President Donald Trump and other Republicans for their lawful contesting of Georgia’s flawed 2020 election.

In her Aug. 14 indictment, Willis alleged the existence of Republican electors for Trump constituted an unlawful “conspiracy” to overturn the Peach State’s 2020 election results. Among those charged for partaking in this so-called “conspiracy” are David Shafer, one of Georgia’s 2020 Republican electors, and Ray Smith, who served as one of Trump’s lawyers at the time of the contest.

However, among the documents Willis obtained during her years-long investigation of Republicans was a meeting transcript contradicting her allegations.

A transcript of the Georgia Republican electors’ Dec. 14, 2020, meeting, acquired by The Federalist, unequivocally shows the objective behind casting alternate electors was not to impersonate public officers, as Willis alleged, but to lawfully maintain Trump’s legal challenge to the state’s election results. At the meeting’s outset, Shafer specifically observed how he and his fellow Republicans were acting as “Republican nominees for Presidential Elector,” not as “duly elected and qualified” presidential electors

“[President Trump] has filed a contest to the certified returns. That contest — is pending [and has] not been decided or even heard by any judge with the authority to hear it,” Shafer said. “And so in order to preserve his rights, it’s important that the Republican nominees for Presidential Elector meet here today and cast their votes.”

For context, Shafer and Trump filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Raffensberger in Fulton County state court on Dec. 4, 2020, alleging tens of thousands of illegal votes had been cast in the state’s presidential election. The suit came after a recount, requested by Trump, supposed Biden the winner of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by a margin of 11,779. The recount pushed Raffensberger to recertify the election on Dec. 7 while Trump’s legal challenge remained ongoing.

By the time Dec. 14, 2020, arrived — the day on which nominees for presidential electors are required by federal law to meet — Trump and Shafer’s lawsuit was still pending. As such, Georgia’s Republican nominees, including Shafer, cast their electoral votes for Trump while the state’s Democrat nominees cast theirs for Biden.

During the Dec. 14, 2020, meeting, Shafer further clarified the legal rationale for filing alternate electors in a conversation with Smith, asking Trump’s then-lawyer: “And so the only way for us to have any judge consider the merits of our complaint, the thousands of people we allege voted unlawfully, is for us to have this meeting and permit the contest to continue?”

“That’s correct,” Smith replied.

Unlike Kennedy, Trump never had his day in court over his legal challenges to those votes and others, but had the court ruled in Trump’s favor, the alternative electors would have been in place to ensure the will of the Georgia people was exercised.

While speaking to Shafer and the other Republican electors at the Dec. 14, 2020, meeting, Smith asserted the naming of Republican electors for Trump would be conducted “in accordance with the Constitution” and the precedent established in the 1960 Hawaii case, saying, “We’re conducting this because the contest of the election in Georgia is ongoing.”

“And if we did not hold this meeting, then our election contest would effectively be abandoned?” Shafer asked, to which Smith replied, “That’s correct.”

Willis did not respond to The Federalist’s repeated requests for comment on when her office possessed the Dec. 14, 2020, transcript prior to announcing Shafer and Smith’s indictments to the public.

In light of the charges levied against their client, Shafer’s legal team filed a motion last week to have his case moved from Fulton County Superior Court to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

In the filing, Shafer’s lawyers argued that neither Georgia nor Willis possesses the legal authority to charge Shafer for actions he took in his capacity as a lawful presidential elector and further requested the federal court “assert its habeas or equitable jurisdiction to bar the State’s prosecution.” Shafer’s team further contended the state’s prosecution “seeks to criminalize a political dispute that only Congress possesses the authority to resolve.”

“Like Members of Congress, presidential electors are created by the Constitution, elected by the States, but serve a federal role under federal authority,” the motion reads. “Just as Members of Congress are federal officers” under federal law, “so too then, by the same analogy, are presidential electors. Mr. Shafer was an officer of the United States for the broad purposes of removal under” the same statute.

According to Shafer, on Tuesday, Obama-appointed District Judge Steve Jones ordered a hearing on Shafer’s motion.