Fake electors' claim they were just following orders is bad for them and for Trump: ex-prosecutor
The recent defense from fake electors in Georgia is that they were merely acting on Donald Trump's orders. It's a claim that is terrible for his defense.
Speaking on Brian Tyler Cohen's "Legal Breakdown," former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner agreed that this is a preview of the defense of the fake electors.
"By all accounts, they are smaller fish," Kirschner said of the fake electors. "They are lesser players. No doubt, they were part of the criminal scheme. They were part of the criminal enterprise to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia. But that's not really who put democracy at risk writ large. So, they are certainly previewing their defense and it's no surprise that we're starting to hear from them, at least in motions filed by their attorneys that they're going to try and put this on Donald Trump."
Those electors are beginning to say that the campaign and Trump were directing them, or that they were merely following orders. Kirschner explained that such a claim will make things easier for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. At the same time, it doesn't help the case of those individuals higher up in the alleged conspiracy.
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Kirschner went on to explain that the comments from the lawyers in the court filing aren't as big for the Trump prosecution as one might believe. What lawyers say, however, is not exactly the same as if it is coming from the client.
"Because anything that comes out of the mouth of a defendant is admissible in trial," he said. "The devil really is in the details. You really have to look at the things in those court filings these legal pleadings, these motions, to see if what the attorney said may come back to haunt the client. So, this is something that will develop as time goes on."
Cohen asked when this would become a problem for Trump.
Kirschner said that it happens when a fake elector is willing to allege that Trump told them to sign their names to the certificate.
That means, "OK, we've got some really dangerous, damaging, and incriminating evidence against Donald Trump. Here's where it becomes the most dangerous for Donald Trump: If these fake electors start flipping. And I have a feeling some of them will. They're not going to want to go to jail for participating in the scheme that was conceived by Donald Trump, and John Eastman, and Kenneth Chesebro, and Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani. So it would not surprise me at all to see this case go from 19 indicted co-defendants down to, maybe, 15, down to maybe down to a dozen, down to six or eight. Because, you know, once these fake electors saw their names in black and white on the wrong side of the 'State of Georgia' vs. named fake electors, it got very real for them."
He went on to say that he would bet that multiple fake electors would agree to a plea deal and take the stand against Trump.
"That's when it gets very dangerous and damaging for Donald Trump," said Kirschner.
The three co-defendants saying that Trump directed them to be fake electors are former state Republican Party chairman David Shafer, state Sen. Shawn Still, and Republican county chairwoman Cathleen Latham.
See Kirschner's comments in the video below or at the link here:
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