Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed charges against so-called “fake electors” over the 2020 election in Georgia, despite near certainly possessing exonerating evidence that their intentions were entirely lawful and in accordance with the United States Constitution.
In her indictment issued on August 14, Willis claimed that the presence of Republican electors for Trump constituted an illicit “conspiracy” aimed at overturning Georgia’s 2020 election results. Those charged in this alleged “conspiracy” included David Shafer, one of Georgia’s 2020 Republican electors, and Ray Smith, who served as one of Trump’s attorneys during the contest.
Willis specifically contended that Shafer and other alternate electors “unlawfully falsely held themselves out” as Georgia’s “duly elected and qualified” presidential electors. She further asserted that these electors, with Smith’s assistance, deliberately sought to “mislead” figures such as then-Vice President Mike Pence and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “into believing that they actually were such officers.”
However, among the documents gathered during Willis’s lengthy investigation of Republicans was a transcript of a meeting that contradicted her allegations.
A transcript of the December 14, 2020, meeting of Georgia Republican electors, obtained by The Federalist, clearly reveals that the intent behind appointing alternate electors was not to