Trump’s ‘Fake Electors’ in Georgia Are in Deep Trouble

Eleven key allies of former President Donald Trump just revealed they’ve been named as targets in a criminal probe over their roles in the 2020 election in Georgia. 

The individuals represent a majority of the 16 people who named themselves possible alternative electors during the 2020 election, as part of a scheme that Trump’s allies were hoping could be used to reverse his defeat. In the legal filing submitted Tuesday, all 11 said  they were informed they could be charged with a crime by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, although they derided the move as a “publicity stunt.” 

Among those named in the filing as targets is David Shafer, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. 

The dramatic expansion of the known number of potential targets suggests that the most aggressive prosecutor in the U.S. pursuing leads related to Trump’s activities in the 2020 election is moving even more aggressively than had been previously known. 

Team Trump’s plan, as revealed in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, was this: Allies in seven key states would submit false certificates of Trump’s victory, and when it came time for the electoral votes to be counted, former Vice President Mike Pence could either fail to recognize any electors from disputed states or delay certification of the election. (Ultimately, Pence didn’t fall in line, and Trump maybe wanted to hang him.) 

But lawyers for Georgia’s so-called “fake electors” argued in the recent filing they had no knowledge of a larger plot and were simply getting ready to submit their votes in case a judge decided that Trump had, in fact, won the state. (He didn’t.) 

The group’s filing asks the judge to dismiss their “unreasonable and oppressive” subpoenas to testify before the Special Grand Jury investigating the actions of Trump’s circle relating to the 2020 election and asserts they will “reluctantly” raise their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. 

News that some Trump allies in Georgia could be indicted over the electors’ imbroglio was first reported by Yahoo News last week. But that initial report mentioned only three people. The group to come forward includes 10 more who were not initially mentioned, suggesting that if the Yahoo News report is indeed accurate, then a total of at least 12 pro-Trump slate of electors have been identified by the prosecutor as targets.