The former chair of Georgia's Republican party has implicated Donald Trump's campaign lawyers in the phony electors scheme intended to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state.
Former state GOP chairman David Shafer filed new court documents Tuesday alleging that campaign attorney Ray Smith addressed a group of conservative activists on Dec. 14, 2020, and advised them to nominate pro-Trump electors to preserve legal challenges to the vote total in the state, reported Politico.
“We’re conducting this because the contest of the election in Georgia is ongoing,” Smith told the group, according to a transcript compiled by a court reporter and submitted by Shafer's lawyers. “And so we continue to contest the election of the electors in Georgia. And so we’re going to conduct this in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and we’re going to conduct the electorate today similar to what happened in 1960 in Hawaii.”
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Shafer asked the attorney to clarify whether the Republican election challenge would "effectively be abandoned" if they did not hold the meeting, and Smith agreed that was accurate.
The former state GOP filed the documents to support his request to remove his Fulton County case to federal court, arguing that he and other Georgia Republicans were acting under the direction of the president and federal officials, and he also revealed a Dec. 10, 2020, email he received from local GOP attorney Alex Kaufman asking him to convene the slate of phony electors, and Trump-affiliated attorneys Cleta Mitchell, Kurt Hilbert and Smith were copied on that email.
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“I am reconfirming the importance and our collective advice that our slate of delegates meet on December 14th (per the Federal Deadline) and cast their ballots in favor of President Trump,” Kaufman wrote in that message. “It is essential that our delegates act and vote in the exact manner as if Governor Kemp has certified the Presidential Contest in favor of President Trump. I believe that this is still the most conservative course of action to preserve the best chance for Georgia to ultimately support the President’s reelection.”
Shafer has been charged with "racketeering," “impersonating a public officer,” "forgery," "false statements and writings,' and "filing false documents."
Smith faces charges of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating of a public officer and conspiracy to commit forgery.
