It has come to light that three of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in Fulton County, Georgia have submitted court filings pointing the finger at him Media Ite.
Shawn Still, Cathleen Latham, and David Shafer, three prominent Georgia Republicans who acted as so-called “fake electors” for Trump in 2020, submitted court filings asserting they signed false documents at the direction of Trump and his legal team.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported on the filings Friday, writing, “In a series of court filings this week, those false electors, who became part of Trump’s last-ditch bid to subvert the 2020 election, said it was Trump and his campaign lawyers who urged them to sign the false documents, claiming they were necessary to preserve Trump’s flailing court efforts to reverse his defeat to Joe Biden.”
It has been noted that the three defendants’ court filings argue they should be “immune from state prosecution because they believed they were carrying out a federal function with the blessing of the incumbent president and a phalanx of his lawyers,” Cheney explains.
Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted by DA Fani Willis on charges, including racketeering and forgery, related to their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Top Republican officials in the state, including the governor and secretary of state, are expected to testify in the trial related to pressure Trump placed on them.
“Mr. Still, as a presidential elector, was also acting at the direction of the incumbent president of the United States,” Still’s attorney argued in a court filing Thursday, seeking to move his case to federal court. Still is currently a sitting state senator.
“The president’s attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020,” added the court filing.
Cheney noted that the filings highlighted the “strains and tensions” between Trump and his co-defendants, which may very well intensify as the trial moves closer.
