Georgia fake electors tell judge they had federal authority to push for Trump victory

Lawyers representing three of the false electors indicted as part of the Georgia election racketeering case argued in court Wednesday that they were acting in the capacity of federal officers, and thus their cases should either be dismissed or their charges removed to a federal court venue, reported The Washington Post.

The three are former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, state Sen. Shawn Still, and GOP central committeewoman Cathy Latham.

“By federal law, these people were not ‘fake,’ ‘sham,’ or 'impersonating’ electors,” said one of the attorneys, Craig Gillen, in arguments before federal District Judge Steve C. Jones. “They were contingent electors when they did their duty on Dec. 14, 2020.” Furthermore, the legal team argued, constitutional law lets states appoint more than one set of electors.

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Fulton County District Attorney Willis argues differently, saying that they had no basis for claiming to be electors at all, and were fraudulently claiming that title as part of a scheme to block people's votes from being counted.

Shafer recently tried to argue prosecutorial misconduct based on a mailer that was sent to him advertising legal services from a special counsel working in Willis' office. Experts have said there was unlikely any wrongdoing in that event.

This also comes after a three-member panel of Republican officials decided that Still will not be suspended from the legislature as he defends against the charges, in large part because he was not in office at the time of the alleged offenses and thus it doesn't pertain to an abuse of legislative power.