A Georgia prosecutor blasted the state's Republican Party for paying the legal defense fees for fake electors she's investigating.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis argued the arrangement was “rife with serious ethical problems” and “actual conflicts of interest" in a new court filing seeking to disqualify two lawyers who are being paid by the state GOP, which she said undercuts their ability to do what's in the best interest of each of their clients, reported Yahoo News.
"In the criminal law, sometimes that’s a plea, right?” Willis told the news outlet. Sometimes I’m going to take this immunity agreement — and I’m going to get you the best deal. You cannot effectively represent — forget 11 — you cannot effectively represent two people doing that. That, to me, puts everything in jeopardy, and it’s a bad idea.”
A spokesman for the state GOP did not respond to a request for comment, and former federal prosecutor Holly Pierson, one of the lawyers Willis is seeking to disqualify, along with co-counsel Kimberly Debrow, called the district attorney's “false and defamatory."
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“Both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Georgia Supreme Court recognize that there is no actual or potential conflict in representing multiple individuals united in their innocence whose defenses against false allegations of wrongdoing are aligned,” Pierson told Yahoo in an email statement.
The filing shows Willis is concerned that the arrangement could compromise her investigation into a scheme to send 11 fake electors to the Jan. 6 congressional certification of President Joe Biden's election win, because it could prevent prosecutors from reaching cooperation agreements with participants who could potentially implicate her top targets -- such as state GOP chairman David Shafer.
Shafer organized a Dec. 14, 2020, meeting at the state Capitol and arranged for it to be held behind closed doors, according to multiple reports that contradict claims in a court filing by Pierson and Debrow that the event was “public and transparent.”