Georgia Republican chair had 'substantively' large role in trying to throw out election results: judge

On Wednesday, The Hillreported that a state judge in Georgia has singled out David Shafer, the chair of the Georgia Republican Party, as having a singularly significant role in the plot to overturn the results of the election in that state.

Shafer, who has been subpoenaed in connection with a state investigation into the plot, was one of the fake Trump electors in Georgia. But, the court ruled, he had a more significant role than the other electors.

"Judge Robert McBurney in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, said in a court ruling that David Shafer was 'not just another alternate elector' and that he must have separate counsel in an investigation probing efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 results," reported Brad Dress. "Shafer’s 'role in establishing and convening the slate of alternate electors, his communications with other key players in the District Attorney’s investigation, and his role in other postelection efforts to call into question the validity of the official vote count in Georgia' separate him from the other 10 alternate electors, the judge wrote."

The ruling means that Shafer cannot have the same legal counsel as the other electors.

"McBurney is overseeing the court proceedings of a special grand jury in Fulton County investigating allegations that Trump and his allies wrongfully intervened to reverse now-President Biden’s victory in the state," said the report. "In the wide-ranging case, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who opened the criminal probe last year, is investigating 16 Georgia Republicans who were offered as fake electors for the state in the 2020 election. The fake electors signed certificates declaring Trump had won the presidential election and offering themselves as official electors in order to certify Georgia’s election results for the former president."

The fake electors were part of a scheme, outlined in an infamous memo by Trump-aligned lawyer John Eastman, where former Vice President Mike Pence would use the fake electors as a pretext to throw out the real ones in key states, throwing the election to Trump. Pence ultimately believed this scheme was illegal and refused to take part in it.