'Fake elector' co-defendant throws former president under the bus: report

Donald Trump directed one of his co-defendants, a Georgia Republican, to sign false papers claiming to be a legitimate elector in the 2020 election, according to a new court filing.

Trump and more than a dozen others were indicted in Fulton County for a purported conspiracy to undermine the 2020 election. Part of that overall alleged scheme was the fake elector plot.

Politico reports:

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"Shawn Still, a Georgia Republican charged alongside former President Donald Trump in a racketeering conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election, says he signed false papers claiming to be a legitimate presidential elector at Trump’s direction."

"Mr. Still, as a presidential elector, was also acting at the direction of the incumbent president of the United States,” his attorney Thomas Bever said Thursday. “The president’s attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020.”

Still is among three false electors charged in the indictment, according to the report.

Former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer and Cathleen Latham are the others.

Still and Shafer are both seeking to have their charges transferred to federal court, the report said.

The report indicates that Still and Shafer are presenting legal arguments that suggest cracks are likely to emerge among the 19 co-defendants.

Politico’s Kyle Cheney writes that “Both men laid their decisions primarily at the feet of Trump and his attorneys for devising and blessing the false-elector gambit. Evidence amassed by the Jan. 6 select committee — as well as special counsel Jack Smith — revealed that Trump called RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel a week before the Dec. 14 vote and put her on the phone with attorney John Eastman, a key driver of the false elector effort, to emphasize the importance of assembling the 'alternative' slates."

Read the article here.