Three fake Trump electors suffer major setbacks in Georgia criminal case

A federal judge has denied the bid by false Trump electors David Shafer, Shawn Still, and Cathy Latham to have their cases removed from state to federal court, reported The Guardian's Hugo Lowell.

"The Supreme Court has stated that presidential electors are not federal officers," stated Judge Steve Jones in his order.

This comes after former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark also had their own bids to remove their cases to federal court denied. Trump himself announced he would not seek that move.

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Shafer previously served as chair of the Georgia Republican Party; Shawn Still is a state senator; and Cathy Latham is a former GOP operative from Coffee County who also serves on the Georgia Republican Party's executive committee. None of them hold a position in the federal government, although they argued in court that they believed themselves in good faith to be serving in a federal function by attesting, falsely, to being electors for Trump.

Removal of the case to federal court doesn't automatically eliminate or modify the state charges brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, which would still be prosecuted in that new venue; however, some legal experts had speculated that the defendants were hoping to have the case tried by a more conservative judge and jury pool.

Meadows and Clark both attempted to argue that their involvement in the efforts to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election were in their official capacity as federal officers, which put it outside the jurisdiction of state courts; these arguments were rejected. Meadows is currently appealing his own ruling against moving the trial to a higher court.

Trump was expected by some experts to file his own motion to have his case removed to federal court as well; however, this week, his legal team decided against doing so.