Former Georgia Republican Party head David Shafer said attorneys for former President Donald Trump, his campaign, and local GOP members called on him to create a slate of alternate electors that are part of the sweeping racketeering case in Fulton County.
Shafer is among 18 co-defendants indicted by District Attorney Fani Willis alongside Trump as part of an alleged conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election results.
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The former Peach State GOP chairman said he and other "Republican Electors in the 2020 election acted at the direction of the incumbent President and other federal officials," according to a filing requesting to move the Fulton County case to federal court.
“[A]n attorney for the President was present at the December 14, 2020 meeting of the presidential electors itself and advised the Presidential Electors, including Mr. Shafer, that performance of their duties was necessary on behalf of the President and the Constitution,” Shafer’s filing noted, identifying co-defendant Ray Smith III, an Atlanta-based lawyer, as the lawyer in question.
One document that Shafer surfaced in his filing was a transcript of the meeting between pro-Trump alternate electors. It showed that Smith addressed the group before they signed an unofficial document certifying the election victory for Trump.
“We’re conducting this because the contest of the election in Georgia is ongoing,” Smith told the group. “And so we continue to contest the election of the electors in Georgia. And so we’re going to conduct this in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and we’re going to conduct the electorate today similar to what happened in 1960 in Hawaii.”
Shafer also showed a Dec. 10, 2020, email sent by local GOP attorney Alex Kaufman, urging him to convene the slate of alternate electors.
Prosecutors with Willis's team have rejected Shafer's argument that he was acting solely on the advice of Trump campaign lawyers, suggesting that he had a leadership role above the alternate electors.
Shafer and the other 19 defendants are charged with racketeering. He is also facing charges of impersonating a public officer, forgery, false statements and writings, and filing false documents. Smith is facing charges of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating of a public officer, and conspiracy to commit forgery.
When asked by Shafer whether assembling the alternate electors meeting was the "only way for us to have a judge consider the merits of our complaint," Smith replied, "That's correct. That's correct."
Smith's statement referenced a one-time matter in Hawaii in 1960, where Democrats signed documents claiming to be the state's legitimate electors during an ongoing recount. Richard Nixon narrowly won the state, and the results were certified by the governor. However, the recount showed John Kennedy was likely to prevail, so Democrats convened to preserve their ability to have their electors counted in case the outcome reversed.
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Hawaii ultimately did go to Kennedy after the recount, and the new governor certified his victory just two days before Congress convened for electoral vote counting.
Nixon, who was vice president at the time, presided over the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 1961, and agreed to count the Democratic electors for Kennedy's narrow win in the state, though it had no bearing on the outcome of the general election during that cycle.