Court documents filed Tuesday show that 16 individuals who signed an “unofficial electoral certificate” as part of a plot to overturn the 2020 election results could be indicted in a criminal investigation.
Attorneys for the electors attempted to “quash” grand jury subpoenas for 11 of the electors, according to CNN, but an Atlanta, Ga. Said Thursday that he would not quash the subpoenas, per another CNN report.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has informed all 16 of the individuals that they may be indicted. Other documents filed Tuesday showed that 11 of the electors are now considered targets of the investigation rather than witnesses.
Willis’ office said this change was due to new information revealed about the case. According to CNN, state prosecutors reassured Shafer and other fake electors for Trump that they were considered witnesses. Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer is one of the electors who is now considered a target of the investigation, said the outlet.
“Shafer told the House select committee in February that the fake electors scheme came at the direction of the Trump campaign after the then-President lost the state’s vote,” it said.
According to the watchdog group American Oversight, it obtained “copies of phony electoral vote certificates signed and submitted to the National Archives and Congress by supporters of former President Trump in seven swing states that had gone for Joe Biden,” in March 2021. These states included: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
For months before American Oversight obtained the certificates, former President Donald Trump already been making public claims that election fraud cost him a second term in the White House. In January 2021, he held a “Stop the Steal” rally where he made the claims, which has been linked to the deadly Capitol riot currently under investigation by the House select committee. Trump has continued to make election fraud claims into this year.
“The false certificates were part of a scheme to prevent the congressional certification of Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump allies, pointing to lies about widespread voter fraud, sought to present the signatories as “alternate” slates of electors,” said American Oversight.
This scheme has been identified as part of what House select committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R- Wyo.) called “a seven part plan overseen by President Trump to overturn the 2020 election.”
The committee issued subpoenas for “alternate electors,” this January. Shafer is included on the list, as well as Nancy Cottle of Arizona Loraine B. Pellegrino of Arizona Shawn Still of Georgia, Kathy Berden of Michigan, Mayra Rodriguez of Michigan Jewll Powdrell of New Mexico, Deborah W. Maestas of New Mexico, Michael J. McDonald of Nevada James DeGraffenreid of Nevada, Bill Bachenberg of Pennsylvania, Lisa Patton of Pennsylvania, Andrew Hitt of Wisconsin and Kelly Ruh of Wisconsin.
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