IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COUNTY

STATE OF GEORGIA

STATE OF GEORGIA Case No. 23SC188947

v.

DAVID J. SHAFER et al.,

Defendants.

DEFENDANT DAVID J. SHAFER’S MOTION TO DISQUALIFY THE

DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, ATLANTA
JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, AND THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE FROM
FURTHER PROSECUTION OF THIS ACTION
AND FOR AN EVIDENTIARY HEARING1

“If I were to comment on any open case, it would be a reason to conflict my office out.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, November 14, 2023 (emphasis added)

(to a reporter for The Washington Post)2

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, has engaged in a pattern of

prosecutorial, forensic misconduct which compels her disqualification from the

prosecution of this case as well as the disqualification of her entire Office and prosecution

staff. All of the causes for the disqualification are self-inflicted blows. Straying wildly from

the legal guardrails which are designed to protect the accused from improper,

1 As set forth in earlier filings by other co-defendants and in a current motion by defendant

Cathleen Latham, District Attorney Willis and her Office have already been found to have
a direct, actual conflict in this matter that, under Georgia law McLaughlin v. Payne, 295
Ga. 609 (2014), requires her and her entire Office to be disqualified from the investigation
and any further prosecution. If this Court grants Mrs. Latham’s motion, in which Mr.
Shafer joins, to correct that earlier mistake and disqualifies District Attorney Willis and
her Office now on that existing basis, it need not address the issues raised in defendant
Michael Roman’s, which Mr. Shafer also adopts, or this motion.

2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wrjx4V3OYM.
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extrajudicial comments by a prosecutor, the District Attorney, for over a year-and-a-half,

has given multiple interviews where she has improperly labeled some of the defendants

as “Fake Electors” and commented on the righteousness of her investigation and

prosecution. The District Attorney’s pattern of prejudicial public statements in relation to

this case reached a new high—or low—on January 14, 2024, in the sanctuary of Big Bethel

A.M.E. Church in Atlanta.

It is important to set the stage. On January 8, 2024, defendant Michael Roman

filed a Motion to Dismiss Grand Jury Indictment as Fatally Defective and Motion to

Disqualify The District Attorney, Her Office and The Special Prosecutor From Further

Prosecuting This Matter (Roman Motion to Dismiss) in this action, alleging that:

1. District Attorney Willis began a romantic relationship with attorney Nathan

Wade prior to hiring Mr. Wade as a special assistant district attorney, under a

limited contract with a cap on the amount he could charge the County, on or about

November 1, 2021. The next day, Mr. Wade filed for divorce from his wife;

2. In March of 2022, District Attorney Willis and Mr. Wade modified the

initial professional services agreement;

3. During this time, District Attorney Willis and Mr. Wade continued their

personal, romantic relationship;

4. On or about November 15, 2022, District Attorney Willis and Mr. Wade

signed an extension of the professional services agreement through May 15, 2023;

and

5. District Attorney Willis and Mr. Wade continued their personal, romantic

relationship before and after the November 15, 2022, extension of Mr. Wade’s

contract.

2
See Roman Motion to Dismiss, pp. 5-7. The Roman Motion to Dismiss further alleges

that:

While the filings in the divorce case are sealed by Court order, undersigned
counsel has learned that Willis and Wade have traveled personally together
to such places as Napa Valley, California, Florida and the Caribbean and
Wade has purchased tickets for both of them to travel on both the
Norwe[gi]an and Royal Carrib[b]ean cruise lines.

Id. at 9.

Rather than properly addressing the accuracy of Mr. Roman’s allegations, the

District Attorney chose a church setting to deflect the Roman allegations by making the

most offensive and incendiary allegations against her accusers—forcing the defendants

onto the lethal third rail of American politics, and in her own words, “playing the race

card.” The obvious intent of her remarks was to inject and infect the jury pool in Fulton

County with unfounded allegations that anyone who dares question her or Mr. Wade’s

conduct must have done so for racist purposes. As an attorney and, most importantly, a

public prosecutor, her comments which directly affected the pending litigation were

indefensible and reprehensible. These comments constitute prosecutorial, forensic

misconduct and warrant her removal and that of her Office from the prosecution of this

case.

Also, if true, the Roman allegations establish District Attorney Willis’ personal

conflict of interest in hiring Mr. Wade, her romantic partner, causing him to be paid

hundreds of thousands of dollars with public funds, receiving personal benefits from him

in the form of paid airline tickets, expensive ocean cruises and vacations to exotic

destinations and never revealing to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners the nature

of her relationship with Mr. Wade, or the personal benefits she received from him.

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 In fact, rather than reveal disclose her relationship with Mr. Wade, she chose to

affirmatively conceal the existence of the personal benefits received from Mr. Wade by

failing to disclose these benefits and gifts on her omitting them from her required

financial disclosure reports. Financial disclosure reports are required for a reason. It

forces the public official to list any benefits the office received from any “prohibited

sources,” such as Mr. Wade, who are doing business with the County. She chose to conceal

the benefits.

Additionally, pursuant to the Georgia Constitution, District Attorney Willis, as a

public officer, is a trustee of the people and a servant of the people and at all times is

amenable to the people. Her conduct in hiring Mr. Wade, causing hundreds of thousands

of dollars to be paid to him, benefitting personally, and failing to disclose her conduct is

a clear breach of her fiduciary responsibility as trustee to the citizens of Fulton County,

Georgia.

Pursuant to these facts and others set forth herein, defendant David J. Shafer

accordingly moves for disqualification of the District Attorney and her Office from

representing the State of Georgia in this action based upon the District Attorney’s public

statements and conflicts of interest.3 The District Attorney’s publicized statements have

3 Mr. Shafer fully recognizes that “[d]ismissal of an indictment is an extreme sanction,

‘used only sparingly as [a remedy] for unlawful government conduct.’” Olsen v. State, 302
Ga. 288, 294 (2017) (quoting State v. Lampl, 296 Ga. 892, 896 (2015)). However, the
State’s misconduct can violate due process where it is “‘so extreme that it caused
demonstrable prejudice to the defendant’s recognized constitutional or statutory
rights…’” Gober v. State, 249 Ga. App. 168, 171 (2001) (citing McGarvey v. State, 186 Ga.
App. 562, 564 (1988)). In addition, federal courts in this jurisdiction have held that “[t]he
dismissal of an indictment on the ground of prosecutorial misconduct is a discretionary
call…” United States v. Jordan, 316 F.3d 1215, 1248-49 (11th Cir. 2003) (citing United
States v. Pendergraft, 297 F.3d 1198 (11th Cir. 2002)). While Mr. Shafer does not request
dismissal of the Indictment in this motion, Mr. Shafer intends to adopt motions by co-
defendants seeking dismissal of the Indictment based upon District Attorney Willis’
4
been severely prejudicial to the defense. Furthermore, the District Attorney’s employment

of Mr. Wade to investigate and prosecute the defendants and payments to Mr. Wade of

over a half a million dollars from the Fulton County treasury while allowing Mr. Wade to

pay for vacations for the District Attorney and other personal expenses constitutes a

disqualifying conflict of interest as well as a violation of ethical rules applicable to

attorneys and Fulton County employees, and potentially criminal law.

The defendants possess a due process right to a fair trial with an impartial jury and

a disinterested prosecutor. The Court furthermore possesses duties to ensure that the

defendants receive a fair trial with an impartial jury, and to preserve public confidence in

the impartiality of the administration of justice. The District Attorney’s improper and

prejudicial actions, which are intentional, self-inflicted wounds, warrant her

disqualification as a representative of the State of Georgia in this action and

disqualification of her Office, in vindication of defendants’ rights and restoration of both

the appearance of and actual impartiality of these proceedings.

A. District Attorney Willis’ Public Statements to the News Media

Regarding “The Race Card,” Her “Winning” “Superstar” Team,” and Her
Direct Communications from God

On January 14, 2024, District Attorney Willis made the following statements

during a televised speech to an audience at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta:

Why does [Fulton County] Commissioner [Bridget] Thorne, and so

many others, question my decision in special counsel? Lord, your flawed,
hard-headed and imperfect child--I’m a little… confused. I appointed three
special counsel as is my right to do. Paid them all the same hourly rate. They
only attack one.

conduct. Mr. Shafer submits that the Court may find that the remedy of dismissing or
quashing the prosecution’s Indictment is warranted as a sanction for District Attorney
Willis’ numerous acts of misconduct and breaches of the law and rules of professional
conduct, as set forth in the various motions filed concerning District Attorney Willis’
conduct.
5
 I hired one white woman. A good personal friend and great lawyer. A
superstar, I tell you.
I hired one white man. Brilliant, my friend and a great lawyer.
And I hired one Black man. Another superstar. A great friend… and
a great lawyer.
O Lord, they going to be mad when I call them out on this nonsense.
First thing they said, "oh she going to play the race card now." But
no, God, isn’t it them playing the race card when they only question
one? Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think that I
need someone from some other jurisdiction, in some other state, to tell me
how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?
[Applause.]
God, why don’t they look at themselves and just be honest? I mean,
can’t they keep it [ ] with themselves? Why are they so surprised that a
diverse team that I assembled, your child, can accomplish extraordinary
things?
God, wasn’t it them who attacked this lawyer of impeccable
credentials? The Black man I chose has been a judge more than 10 years.
Run a private practice more than 20. Represented businesses in civil
litigation. I ain’t done, y’all. Served as a prosecutor, a criminal defense
lawyer, Special Assistant Attorney General. Won Chief Justice Robert
Benham Award from the State Bar of Georgia—you know, they ain’t just
giving this to Black men.
How come God, the same Black man I hired was acceptable when a
Republican in another county hired him and paid him twice the
rate? [Applause] Oh y’all like to hear me. [Applause.] In another county, the
elected official has the authority to pay him twice the rate. Why is the white
male Republican’s judgment good enough, but the Black female
Democrat’s not?
[Applause.]
Now please hear me: I am not criticizing his judgment. The people of
his county elected him to make that decision. In fact, let me put it on the
record, he’s someone I respect, because he was always willing to hire
diversity. He was just looking for quality. I don’t care political party—they
care about it. My only question is: why do they question me?
Now I want to be clear: all three of these special counselors are
superstars. But I’m just asking, God: is it that some will never see a Black
man as qualified, no matter his achievements? What more can one
achieve? The other two have never been judges, but no one questions their
credentials. I’m just saying. [Applause]
Lord, I’m just asking. Is it that I, because of the shell you chose to
put me in, will never be qualified in their eyes to make the decisions the
voters put me here to make?
[Applause.]
Lord, never mind your flawed, imperfect servant has composed a
team that wins and wins and wins. [Applause.] Never mind, Lord, that this
leader has a trial conviction rate of 95 percent. [Applause.] Never mind,

6
 Lord, that the trial team that this lawyer put together has a conviction rate
of 95 percent. [Applause.] Never mind, Lord, that the appellate rate of my
office is 96 percent. [Applause.] Never mind, Lord, that 400 plus children
are touched by the programming that my staff put together to keep them
out of gangs. [Applause.] Never mind, Lord, that thousands of records of
citizens in my county have now been restricted so that they can work, and
get home and return to being productive. [Applause.] Never mind, Lord,
that in three years I have cut the backlog by more than 50 percent.
[Applause.] Never mind, Lord, in my community where in the rest of the
country crime is down five or seven percent, is down 20 percent here.
[Applause.] Never mind, Lord, that homicides are down in Atlanta by 20
percent. [Applause.] Is there something about me, Lord, that makes me still
unqualified?
God [ ] responds, “Child, pray for those. They can’t see what I’ve
qualified.” [Applause.]
Wait God. I’m going to slow down here. It’s your hard-headed child. I
told you I don’t want to pray f0r them. [Laughter.] I am tired of being
treated cruelly.
Pray for them anyway, child. Pray for their hearts. Pray for their
souls. I qualified you. I qualified your imperfect, flawed self. I saw you in
every hour. Do my work. Ignore the distractions.4

(Emphasis added). As she knew they would be, her statements were widely reported by

national and local news media, and the recording of her statements was published

numerous times online. Irrespective of her vagueness as to whom her statements were

directed to, it is plain that they were directed towards Mr. Roman and intended to taint

the jury pool in this case.

Following District Attorney Willis’ public statements at the church, a flood of

media stories were published with headlines such as “Fani Willis, Trump Georgia

case prosecutor, ends silence on misconduct accusations,” “Fulton County

DA Fani Willis defends special prosecutor following allegation of romantic

relationship,” “Fulton DA defends special prosecutor during church speech,”

4 FOX 5 Atlanta, ”Fani Willis Big Bethel AME Church full speech | FOX 5 News” (January
14, 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGHjumOMWHA .

7
“What you need to know about the drama surrounding Fulton County DA

Fani Willis,” “Judge in Trump Georgia case orders hearing on Fani Willis

misconduct claims,“ “Lawyer hired to prosecute Trump in Georgia is thrust

into the spotlight over affair claims,” and “How Allegations of an Office

Romance Came to Complicate the Case Against Trump.” See Exhibit A. The

media correctly understood that Willis’ statements accused her critics of racism: “Willis

vigorously defended Wade’s credentials at a church service on Sunday and suggested the

questioning of his hiring was rooted in racism. She has three special prosecutors working

on the election case — a white woman, a white man and a Black man — ‘they only attacked

one,’ she said, referring to Wade..” Id., p. 36.

B. Other Public Statements by District Attorney Willis Relating to The Case

and The Defendants

On the evening of May 2, 2022, District Attorney Willis voluntarily appeared on

CNN. Willis said the following concerning her investigation on national television:

Um, we are going to look at anything connected with, um, interference with
the 2020 election. And so I’ve allowed that to be a broad scope, not just the
President’s phone call that you played there. But other things that indicate
that there may have been interference with that… election. To include fake
electorates [sic].5

(Emphasis supplied).

In the wake of District Attorney Willis’ statements on national cable news, the news

media published numerous pieces concerning Mr. Shafer and the other 2020 nominee

Republican Presidential Electors with headlines such as “GOP fake electors ‘targets’

in Georgia election fraud inquiry,” “Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton

5 Id.

8
County special grand jury probe,” “Georgia fake electors may face charges in

election probe,” “Georgia prosecutors ‘target’ 16 ‘fake electors’ in 2020

election probe,” “Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for ‘fake’ Trump electors in

Fulton County DA probe,” “Judge: GOP head can’t share lawyers with other

fake electors,” “Georgia DA seeks to disqualify attorney for ‘fake electors’ in

Trump investigation,” “Fulton DA offered immunity to ‘fake’ electors, asks

for attorney to remove[ ] from case, motion shows,” “Fulton DA seeks to

disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing ‘ethical mess,’” “Fake

Trump electors pointing fingers in Georgia election inquiry; DA seeks

removal of defense attorney,” “‘Ethical mess’ | Georgia’s ‘fake’ Trump electors

turn on each other, Fulton DA says,” “Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump

fake electors off the case, says there’s conflict,” “‘Fake’ Coffee County Trump

elector wants 2020 Georgia election investigation ended,” “At least 8 fake

electors have immunity in Ga. election probe,” “8 Trump ‘fake electors’ have

accepted immunity in Georgia election probe, attorney says,” “Who are

Georgia’s alleged fake electors in the Donald Trump investigation?,” “Georgia

Trump investigation | Who are the ‘fake’ or ‘alternate’ electors?,” “Fani Willis

successfully flipped eight ‘fake electors.’ Why that matters to Trump,” “Fake

Electors ‘Perfectly’ Positioned to Flip on Donald Trump: Kirschner,” and

“Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their

Georgia cases moved to federal court.” See Exhibit B.

9
C. “Find Me The Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue
President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election”

On January 30, 2024, Hachette Book Group published a book entitled Find Me

The Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to

Steal an American Election, about District Attorney Willis and the “ongoing” criminal

case. See Michael Isikoff & Daniel Klaidman, Find Me The Votes: A Hard-Charging

Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election,

Acknowledgements (1st ed. 2024) (Find Me The Votes). According to the authors, District

Attorney Willis gave them “access and time…” Id. District Attorney Willis certainly knew

that this book, featuring her as the “hard-charging,” afraid of nothing, prosecutor would

be published and available to the public prior to the trial of this case. In the extensive

interviews, District Attorney Willis continued her themes regarding racism and provided

details of racist comments and threats of violence against her and her need for enhanced

security, as well as God’s protection and direction of her during the handling of this case.

Id. at 2, 6, 225, 271, 273.

Among other things, District Attorney Willis told the authors that, since her Office

had opened this case, the Office had gotten a lot of comments, and that the comments

were “always racist.” See Find Me The Votes, p. 223. District Attorney Willis also

purportedly told the authors “[w]e all have to live by a certain standard of rules. And if

you violate them, you catch a charge.” Id. at 255 (emphasis in original).

10
 II. ARGUMENT

“[W]hen you represent the citizens… you need to be beyond reproach.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis,

August 6, 2020 (emphasis added) (to a reporter for 11Alive News)6

A. The Court Should Disqualify District Attorney Willis as Counsel for The
State of Georgia in This Action Based Upon The District Attorney’s
Misconduct in the Form of Repeated, Prejudicial Public Statements to the
News Media

“The television camera is a powerful weapon. Intentionally or inadvertently, it

can destroy an accused and his case in the eyes of the public.” Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S.

532, 543 (1965) (emphasis added). This statement was true when it was made by the

United States Supreme Court in Estes in 1965, and it is even more true today in the age of

the internet, cellphones, social media, and near-universal instant access to news.

Due process requires “‘[a] fair trial in a fair tribunal…” Estes, 381 U.S. at 543

(quoting In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 136 (1955); quoting Offutt v. United States, 348

U.S. 11, 14 (1954)). Pursuant to due process, a criminal defendant must be provided with

“a jury capable and willing to decide the case solely on the evidence before it, and a trial

judge ever watchful to prevent prejudicial occurrences and to determine the effect of such

occurrences when they happen.” Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 217 (1982); accord

Inman v. State, 281 Ga. 67, 74 (2006) (quoting Smith, at 217).

6 “Fani Willis talks about race against D.A. Paul Howard,” 11Alive (August 6, 2020),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CEM3GfiLdo .

11
 Under Georgia law, a prosecuting attorney may be disqualified based upon a

conflict of interest or “forensic misconduct.” See Whitworth v. State, 275 Ga. App. 790,

792 (2005) (citing Williams v. State, 258 Ga. 305, 314 (1988)); see also Woods v.

Covington County Bank, 537 F.2d 804, 813 n. 12 (5th Cir. 1976) (stating that courts may

disqualify an attorney where has been a reasonable possibility of improper professional

conduct where “the likelihood of public suspicion or obloquy outweighs the social

interests which will be served by a lawyer's continued participation in a particular case”).

“Prosecutor's forensic misconduct may be generally defined as any activity by the

prosecutor which tends to divert the jury from making its determination of guilt or

innocence by weighing the legally admitted evidence in the manner prescribed by law.”

Note, The Nature and Consequences of Forensic Misconduct in The Prosecution of a

Criminal Case, 54 Colum. L. Rev. 946, 949 (1954) (emphasis added) (cited at Williams,

at 314).

In regard to publicity, “[d]ue process requires that the accused receive a trial by an

impartial jury free from outside influences.” Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 362

(1966). “Given the pervasiveness of modern communications and the difficulty of effacing

prejudicial publicity from the minds of the jurors, the trial courts must take strong

measures to ensure that the balance is never weighed against the accused.” Id. “[T]he

12
atmosphere essential to the preservation of a fair trial—the most fundamental of all

freedoms—must be maintained at all costs.” Estes, 381 U.S. at 540.

The Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct state that:

A lawyer who is participating or has participated in the investigation or

litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that a person
would reasonably believe to be disseminated by means of public
communication if the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that it will
have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative
proceeding in the matter.

Ga. R. Prof. Cond. 3.6(a). The Rules of Professional Conduct furthermore provide that a

prosecutor in a criminal case shall, “except for statements that are necessary to inform

the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor’s action and that serve a legitimate

law enforcement purpose, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a

substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.” Ga. R. Prof.

Cond. 3.8(g) (emphasis added).

District Attorney Willis spoke to the audience and news media present at the

church from notes which she had prepared.7 The District Attorney referenced the race of

each of the private attorneys whom the District Attorney had employed in relation to the

Indictment, and asked the audience whether Fulton County Commissioner Bridget

Thorne and others who criticized her were “playing the race card.” District Attorney Willis

proceeded to refer to Mr. Wade as the “Black man,” and asked why a “white male

Republican’s judgment” was allegedly “good enough” but a “Black female Democrat’s”

judgment allegedly was not. She then asked whether there were some persons who “will

7 “Fani Willis Big Bethel AME Church full speech | FOX 5 News,” FOX 5 Atlanta (January
14, 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGHjumOMWHA .

13
never see a Black man as qualified, no matter his achievements,” and whether she would

ever be qualified in the eyes of such people because of the “shell” she had been “put in.”

District Attorney Willis’ publicized statements suggested that Commissioner

Thorne, Mr. Roman and the District Attorney’s other critics are motivated by alleged

racial prejudice or animus. The media likewise interpreted District Attorney Willis’

statements as suggesting that Mr. Roman and others questioning the District Attorney’s

employment or compensation of Mr. Wade were “racist.”8 District Attorney Willis, in

making highly-publicized, inflammatory and scandalous remarks suggesting that her

opponents are racist, has heightened condemnation of the defendants in this action and

prejudiced the defendants’ due process right to a fair trial before an impartial jury, free

from outside influences, in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The District

Attorney has willfully attempted to prejudice any jury panel selected in this case through

insinuating that her opponents are allegedly racist. And finally, District Attorney Willis

has contributed to the poisoning of any potential jury pool in this case by providing

information regarding the investigation and prosecution in this case for a book which has

been published prior to trial.

Accusing Commissioner Thorne and many others (including Mr. Roman) of

allegedly playing the “race card,” District Attorney Willis asked why no one had

questioned her hiring of one white woman (attorney Anna Cross) and one white man

(attorney John Floyd) as special assistant district attorneys while questioning her hiring

of Mr. Wade, a Black man. The answer is obvious. There is no evidence whatsoever that

8 https://www.newsweek.com/fani-willis-tears-marjorie-taylor-greene-1860775;
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/us/fani-willis-trump-georgia-prosecutors.html.

14
District Attorney Willis has a romantic relationship with either of the “white” special

assistant district attorneys, caused several hundred thousand dollars to be paid to them,

received personal gifts from them in the form of airline flights, seat upgrades, hotel stays,

ocean cruises, wine country tours and beach vacations, and failed to report such gifts on

her financial disclosure forms. Sadly, it is District Attorney Willis who is playing the race

card in order to deflect attention from her own misconduct and conflicts of interest.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that “[t]he heightened public clamor

resulting from radio and television coverage will inevitably result in prejudice.” Estes, 381

U.S. at 549. District attorneys and their offices have been disqualified or recused from

prosecutions for making prejudicial statements to the media in other cases. See People v.

Lastra, 83 Cal. App. 5th 816, 819, 821, 824 (2022), as modified on denial of reh’g (Sept.

28, 2022), review denied (Jan. 11, 2023) (affirming the trial court’s granting of the

defendants’ motion to recuse the district attorney’s office from the prosecution of the

defendants for charges relating to a protest march where the district attorney had made

media and public appearances, and posts on social media, making statements critical of

the Black Lives Matter movement); People v. Choi, 80 Cal. App. 4th 476, 479, 480, 484

(2000) (trial court’s order recusing the entire district attorney’s office affirmed where the

district attorney made statements to the press, stating his belief that the defendants, who

were charged with murder, were connected to an uncharged murder, affirmed). However,

the fact that District Attorney Willis has willfully and publicly raised racial arguments

relating to the issues in this action makes disqualification of District Attorney Willis and

her Office from representing the State in this action on grounds of the District Attorney’s

violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct uniquely appropriate. The United States

Supreme Court has recognized that:

15
 [D]iscrimination on the basis of race, “odious in all aspects, is especially
pernicious in the administration of justice,” Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. 545,
555 [(1979)], damaging “both the fact and the perception” of the jury’s role
as “a vital check against the wrongful exercise of power by the State,”
Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 411 [(1991)].

Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, 580 U.S. 206, 208 (2017). The jury is supposed to be a

criminal defendant’s “‘protection of life and liberty against race or color prejudice.’” Id. at

209 (quoting McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279, 310 (1987); quoting Strauder v. West

Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 309 (1880)).

As one court has observed, “[r]eliance on racial or ethnic bias has no place in the

justice system.” State v. Horntvedt, 539 P.3d 869, 874 (Wash. Ct. App. 2023) (citing State

v. Zamora, 199 Wash.2d 698, 723 (2022); Rose, 443 U.S. at 555; State v. Sum, 199

Wash.2d 627, 640 (2022)). “A defendant is deprived of their right to an impartial jury

‘when explicit or implicit racial bias is a factor in a jury’s verdict.’” State v. Bagby, 200

Wash.2d 777, 787 (2023) (reversing the defendant’s convictions for burglary, fourth

degree assault, and harassment, finding that “the prosecutor in [the defendant’s] case

engaged in conduct that flagrantly or apparently intentionally appealed to racial bias and

thus undermined [the defendant’s] credibility and the presumption of his innocence”)

(quoting State v. Berhe, 193 Wash.2d 647, 657 (2019)). “Because the prosecutor is a

representative of the State, it is especially damaging to… constitutional principles when

the prosecutor introduces racial discrimination or bias into the jury system.” Zamora, at

710.9 A court “must be vigilant of conduct that appears to appeal to racial or ethnic bias…”

Id. at 714.

9 One district attorney was even removed from office, as opposed to a particular
prosecution, for use of racist language. See In re Spivey, 345 N.C. 404, 408, 419 (1997)
(affirming trial court’s order removing a district attorney from office where the district
attorney had used an abusive racial epithet during a confrontation with a patron at a bar).
16
 District Attorney Willis’ deliberate, inflammatory accusations at an Atlanta church

that those objecting to her employment and compensation of Mr. Wade are “racist”

constitute forensic misconduct by the District Attorney in relation to this case and warrant

her removal as a representative of the State of Georgia in this action. District Attorney

Willis repeatedly emphasized and contrasted Mr. Wade’s race and the race of two other

attorneys and that of a politician who had hired Mr. Wade. See Bagby, 200 Wash.2d at

795 (“Identifying [the defendant] as the black man and [the victim] as the white man in

opposition to one another in this manner further emphasizes the idea of a racially charged

‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality”). The District Attorney’s public appeals based upon racial

bias or prejudice in relation to her hiring of Mr. Wade were especially inflammatory in

view of the fact that, earlier in the same speech, District Attorney Willis stated that she

had received regular death threats and racist abuse as a consequence of this prosecution:

Oh, my God, you forgot to mention that my life and the life of my family
would be threatened so regularly. I now think it’s not normal if I don’t have
two death threats a week. My God, you did not tell me that people would call
me the N word more than they call me Fani. You did not tell me. As a woman
of color, it would not matter what I did, my motive, my talent, my ability,
and my character would be constantly attacked.10

The District Attorney also improperly injected religion into this case. In her speech

at the church, she spoke to the audience about a “response” from “God”--to the effect that

God had allegedly “qualified” the District Attorney and was directing her to do God’s

“work.” In an apparent reference to the Roman Motion to Dismiss, she seems to be

suggesting that God opposes the disqualification motion and approves of her

10FOX 5 Atlanta, “Fani Willis Big Bethel AME Church full speech | FOX 5 News” (January
14, 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGHjumOMWHA .

17
prosecutorial decisions. District Attorney Willis’ statements to the media that God had

allegedly “qualified” her and that she is allegedly doing “God’s work” were grossly

improper and plainly amounted to an “‘inflammatory appeal to… jurors’ private religious

beliefs.’” Hammond v. State, 264 Ga. 879, 886 (1995) (quoting United States v. Giry, 818

F.2d 120, 133–134 (1st Cir. 1987)). Her statements concerning her “superstar” team that

“wins and wins and wins” and has a “95 percent conviction rate” furthermore constituted

improper vouching for the prosecution to the public, in disregard of the presumption of

innocence and the prosecution’s burden to prove its charges against the defendants

beyond a reasonable doubt. Given the prosecution’s purported conviction rate, potential

jurors would assume that defendants are guilty given that the prosecution “wins” 95

percent of its cases.

Moreover, District Attorney Willis’ improper and inaccurate characterization of

Mr. Shafer and the other 2020 nominee Republican Presidential Electors as “Fake

Electors” to the national media has been exceedingly prejudicial to Mr. Shafer. At all times

material to the District Attorney’s Indictment, Mr. Shafer was qualified as a “lawful”

Presidential Elector pursuant to Georgia law through his nomination as a Presidential

Elector by the Georgia Republican Party. See O.C.G.A. § 21-2-130(3) & (4). Mr. Shafer was

nominated as a Presidential Elector by the Georgia Republican Party in March of 2020,

approximately eight months before the November 2020 general election. In the conduct

alleged in the Indictment, Mr. Shafer was acting pursuant to federal law and the

Constitution, the advice of legal counsel, and he and the other nominee Republican

Presidential Electors were following the precedent of the 1960 presidential election in the

18
State of Hawaii.11 Mr. Shafer and the other 2020 nominee Republican Presidential

Electors were not “fake” electors, and the District Attorney’s public comments improperly

characterizing them as such have greatly prejudiced Mr. Shafer’s and the other

Presidential Elector defendants’ primary defense to the prosecution’s charges against

them, with the false characterization being widely spread and constantly repeated by the

media. In addition, in the nominee Presidential Elector defendants’ efforts to remove this

action to federal court, United States District Court Judge Steve Jones recognized that the

term “Fake Electors” is inaccurate and misleading, finding:

Shafer along with the fifteen other individuals who met as the Republican-
nominated presidential electors have been deemed “fake electors,” in the
media and were referred to as such by the State at the evidentiary hearing
in this matter. Hearing Tr. 8:6-12; 68:18–21. Shafer’s counsel urged that
they be referred to as “contingent electors.” Id. 9:7–11. Neither term,
however, adequately describes the Republican-nominated presidential
electors under federal or Georgia law... For the sake of precision and
clarity, therefore, the Court will use the term “Republican nominated
presidential electors” to describe Shafer and the other fifteen individuals
that attended the December 14, 2020 meeting.

Georgia v. Shafer, civil action number 1:23-CV-03720-SCJ (N.D. Ga. 2023), Order issued

August 29, 2023, p. 3 n. 3.

11 [I]n 1960, Hawaii appointed two slates of electors and Congress chose to
count the one appointed on January 4, 1961, well after the Title 3 deadlines.
See Josephson & Ross, Repairing the Electoral College, 22 J. Legis. 145,
166, n. 154 (1996)…
Republican electors were certified by the Acting Governor on November 28,
1960. A recount was ordered to begin on December 13, 1960. Both
Democratic and Republican electors met on the appointed day to cast their
votes. On January 4, 1961, the newly elected Governor certified the
Democratic electors. The certification was received by Congress on January
6, the day the electoral votes were counted. Josephson & Ross, 22 J. Legis.,
at 166, n. 154.

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 127 (2000) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (emphasis added). If the
prosecution’s allegations in this case are believed, Justice Stevens was describing alleged
criminal activity in his opinion in Bush v. Gore.
19
 District Attorney Willis’ labelling the nominee Presidential Electors as “Fake

Electors” furthermore amounts to an improper and prejudicial opinion that Mr. Shafer

and the other Presidential Elector defendants’ actions were allegedly illegal. “‘The

prosecutor should not express his or her personal belief or opinion as to the truth or falsity

of any testimony or evidence or the guilt of the defendant.’” Woods v. State, 275 Ga. 844,

848 (2002) (quoting ABA Standards of Criminal Justice Relating to the Prosecution

Function).

District Attorney Willis’ “remarks were part of a calculated plan evincing a design

to prejudice the defendant[s] in the minds of the jurors…” Williams, 258 Ga. at 314

(affirming the trial court’s denial of the defendant’s motion to disqualify where the

prosecutor made statements to the media prior to the fourth trial of the defendant, stating

“So far as I see it, the score is 35-to-1 for conviction, and I'm confident that if we bring it

back and get a jury that is willing and able to decide, then we'll get the right result,” and

“In my opinion, therefore, there is substantial reason to believe [the defendant] is guilty

of the offense charged”) (citing Pierce v. United States, 86 F.2d 949 (6th Cir. 1936);

Dunlop v. United States, 165 U.S. 486 (1897). District Attorney Willis used the media

attention surrounding this case to make public comments intended to inflict as much

damage on her opponents as she believed that she could get away with. In contrast, the

prosecution is wholly dismissive of District Attorney Willis’ nationally televised

comments relating to the case, asserting in its State’s Opposition to Defendants Roman,

Trump, and Cheeley’s Motions to Dismiss and to Disqualify the District Attorney

(Opposition) that “District Attorney Willis has made no public statements that warrant

disqualification or judicial inquiry…” Opposition, p. 2. The Court should rightly have

20
serious concerns, however, where a prosecutor and officer of the Court makes public,

extrajudicial statements suggesting that her critics, including the defendants, are racist.

District Attorney Willis’ intentional, prejudicial public statements amount to

forensic misconduct warranting the disqualification of the District Attorney and her

Office. The Court should act to safeguard the defendants’ right to a fair trial by an

impartial jury, free from outside influences and, above all, appeals to racial prejudice by

the prosecution. See Bagby, 200 Wash.2d at 803 (“‘[T]he prosecutor’s injection of racial

discrimination into this case cannot be countenanced at all, not even to the extent of

contemplating to any degree that the error might be harmless’”) (quoting Berhe, 193

Wash.2d at 682 (Madsen, C.J., concurring)). District Attorney Willis should be

disqualified for her misconduct and willful violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct,

inserting issues of race into this proceeding and into the public forum in an effort to

prejudice any jury pool in this action against the defendants, in violation of the

defendants’ due process rights.

B. The Court Should Disqualify District Attorney Willis as Counsel for The
State of Georgia in This Action Based Upon The District Attorney’s
Conflicts of Interest

“I certainly will not be choosing people to date that work under me. Let me
just say that. Um, you know, we are at a place in society where things happen
in peoples’ relationships and husband and wife, sometimes there are
outside relationships. I don’t think that that’s what the community is
concerned about, although there, you know, might be a moral breaking in
that. I think that what citizens are really, really concerned about is if you
chose to have inappropriate contact with employees. I mean there’s
nothing that I can say on it other than it is distracting, um, and it’s
certainly inappropriate for the number one law enforcement officer in the
State, um, and it just—it, it really, really saddens me…”

21
 Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, 2020 (emphasis added)12 13

A criminal defendant possesses a right to a disinterested prosecutor. See Young v.

U.S. ex rel. Vuitton et Fils S.A., 481 U.S. 787, 807 (1987). Under Georgia law, “[i]f the

assigned prosecutor has acquired a personal interest or stake in the conviction, the trial

court abuses its discretion in denying a motion to disqualify h[er]…” Amusement Sales,

Inc. v. State, 316 Ga. App. 727, 735 (2012) (citing Whitworth, 275 Ga. App. at 796; Young

v. United States, 481 U.S. 787, 809–814 (1987)). For a district attorney to have a conflict

in a case “is contrary to public policy…” McLaughlin v. Payne, 295 Ga. 609, 613 (2014)

(citing Lane v. State, 238 Ga. 407, 408–410 (1977); Clifton v. State, 187 Ga. 502, 504

(1939)).

A conflict of interest exists where “there is a significant risk that the lawyer's own

interests or the lawyer’s duties to another client, a former client, or a third person will

materially and adversely affect the representation of the client…” Ga. R. Prof. Cond. 1.7(a).

District Attorney Willis’ employment of Mr. Wade as a special assistant district attorney

for the State and paying him more than three times her annual salary while

simultaneously receiving benefits and gifts from Mr. Wade, all while privately being

involved in a romantic relationship with him, constitutes an actual, substantial conflict of

interest for District Attorney Willis. As a prosecuting attorney, District Attorney Willis

12

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1748487114168394034?ref_src=twsrc%5Et
fw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1748487114168394034%7Ctwgr%5E4f7
ac00384bfc7a826fa332a491ed91ac8f033bd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F
%2Fthepostmillennial.com%2Fda-fani-willis-slammed-over-video-saying-she-would-
not-date-lower-level-staff

13District Attorney Willis’ hypocrisy in having a romantic relationship with Mr. Wade
while criticizing former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard for having
improper sexual contact with employees of the Office is astonishing.
22
“represents, not an ordinary party, but a sovereignty, whose obligation is to govern

impartially and whose interest in a particular case is not necessarily to win, but to do

justice.” Collier v. State, 266 Ga. App. 345, 352 (2004) (citing Berger v. United States,

295 U.S. 78, 88 (1935)).

District Attorney Willis ’ causing over half a million dollars in County funds to be

paid to her boyfriend and her receipt of gifts from Mr. Wade in the form of expensive trips

has been in District Attorney Willis’ personal interest—not in the interest of the State.

District Attorney Willis furthermore presumably possesses a personal interest in her

romantic interest, Mr. Wade, continuing to receive large amounts of State or County funds

by remaining a special assistant district attorney in this case. District Attorney Willis

knew what she was doing was wrong. The District Attorney herself made accusations of

sexual misconduct against former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard when she

ran against him in 2020, as shown by the above quote by the District Attorney.

The defendants possess a right to a disinterested, conflict-free prosecutor. For its

part, the State should want to provide–in all cases, but especially this one-conflict-free

representation that is above reproach. District Attorney Willis should have recused

herself from this case prior to the return of the Indictment. She should have complied

with her statutory mandate to notify the Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’

Council of the State of Georgia that she was disqualified from this case as a result of

“interest or relationship.” See O.C.G.A. § 15-18-5. She failed to take any of these steps.

i. District Attorney Willis’ Conduct Violated District Attorney Willis’

Oath of Office

District Attorney Willis’ personal, financial conflict of interest in this case is

especially serious for the reason that District Attorney Willis’ conduct giving rise to the

23
conflict violated District Attorney Willis’ constitutional duties of trust, ethics standards

applicable to public servants and attorneys and, potentially, criminal statutes. On taking

office, District Attorney Willis swore an oath to faithfully and impartially discharge her

duties as District Attorney without fear, favor or affection, and while taking only her

lawful compensation. See O.C.G.A. § 15-18-2. District Attorney Willis’ entering into a

contract for her romantic partner to be paid from County funds while receiving benefits

from Mr. Wade and concealing the relationship from the County does not constitute

either a faithful or impartial exercise of District Attorney Willis’ duties.

The prosecution’s Indictment charges certain defendants to this action with

alleged solicitation of violations by public officers of their oaths of office, in violation of

O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-7 and 16-10-1. See Indictment, pp. 72, 74, 84, 87, 95. District Attorney

Willis’ conduct in employing her boyfriend at a cost of over half a million dollars to the

County while failing to disclose the relationship or her receipt of favors constitutes

conduct either as or more serious as other cases involving violations of section 16-10-1.

See Nave v. State, 166 Ga. App. 466, 467 (1983) (DeKalb County assistant district attorney

indicted and convicted for violation of oath of office under O.C.G.A. § 16–10–1 , where the

attorney received several thousand dollars from a defendant “in exchange for a promise

not to prosecute her case and provide her with a copy of the state's file against her”); State

v. Greene, 171 Ga. App. 329, 329 (1984) (reversing grant of special demurrer by clerk of

the Gwinnett County Recorder's Court, who was indicted for falsifying public records and

violation of oath by a public officer); Gaskins v. State, 318 Ga. App. 8, 9 (2012) (affirming

the defendant police officer’s conviction for violation of oath of office where the officer

ran up charges with, and provided false information to, the carrier for his personal

wireless phone); Poole v. State, 262 Ga. 718, 718 (1993) (police officer’s conviction for

24
violation of oath affirmed where officer confiscated a handgun and then pawned it to pay

his water bill).

The defense has furthermore obtained Fulton County Income and Financial

Disclosure Reports (Disclosure Reports) for the years 2021 and 2022, signed and

submitted by District Attorney Willis to the County. See Exhibit C. The Disclosure Reports

require County officials to disclose “[e]ach gift or favor from a single prohibited source in

the aggregate amount of $100.00 or more.” Id. at 2. A “prohibited source” includes any

person “seeking to do or [ ] doing business with the county…” id., which in this case would

obviously include Mr. Wade. District Attorney Willis did not disclose any of the gifts or

favors she received from Mr. Wade on the Disclosure Reports. Id. Similar conduct has

been subject to criminal prosecution. See United States v. Bickers, No. 1:18-CR-98-SCJ-

LTW, 2019 WL 7559292, at *12 (N.D. Ga. Sept. 17, 2019), report and recommendation

adopted, No. 1:18-CR-00098-SCJ, 2019 WL 5587050 (N.D. Ga. Oct. 30, 2019) (observing

that the defendant had been charged, inter alia, “with wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C.

§§ 1343 and 1349 in connection with the alleged filing of false Financial Disclosure Forms

via the Internet while receiving her City salary as the Director of Human Services”);

United States v. Wright, No. CRIM. 11-0262-WS, 2012 WL 1365454, at *1 (S.D. Ala. Apr.

19, 2012) (defendant mayor indicted for causing his daughter to sell land which the

defendant had transferred to her to the City pursuant to a grant of funds from the Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) without disclosing his conflict of interest).

Furthermore, for the purposes of the federal honest services mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C.

§ 1346, “‘when an official… personally benefits from an undisclosed conflict of interest—

the official has defrauded the public of his honest services.’” United States v. Lopez–

Lukis, 102 F.3d 1164, 1169 (11th Cir. 1997) (the defendant, a county commissioner, who

25
had had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist appearing before the board of

commissioners and had accepted payments from him, was convicted under section 1346).

District Attorney Willis’ failure to list the gifts and benefits which she received from Mr.

Wade on her Disclosure Reports may reasonably be found to constitute evidence of an

intent on the part of District Attorney Willis to conceal the gifts and benefits from the

Fulton County Commission and the public. The prosecution’s Opposition, moreover,

entirely fails to address District Attorney Willis’ omissions from her Disclosure Reports.

See Opposition.

District Attorney Willis and her actions are already under investigation by the

Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives 14, and a Special

Committee of the Georgia State Senate15. In light of her conduct, District Attorney Willis

must undoubtedly be concerned over the potential consequences of a Republican

administration in charge of the United States Department of Justice.

ii. District Attorney Willis’ Conduct Constituted a Breach of Trust

The Georgia Constitution provides that public employees are “trustees of the

people and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to them.” Georgia Const.

Art. I, Sec. II.

Many forms of conduct permissible in a workaday world for those acting at

arm’s length, are forbidden to those bound by fiduciary ties. A trustee is held
to something stricter than the morals of the market place. Not honesty
alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard

14 Zoë Richards and Rebecca Kaplan, “House Republicans launch inquiry into Jan. 6 panel

and prosecutor in Trump’s Georgia case,” NBC News (December 5, 2023),

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-republicans-launch-inquiry-fani-
willis-jan-6-panel-rcna128242.

Shirin Faqiri, “Georgia state Senate approves special committee investigation into Fani
15

Willis,” CNN (January 26, 2024), https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/26/politics/fani-

willis-nathan-wade-georgia-state-senate-investigation/index.html.
26
 of behavior. As to this there has developed a tradition that is unbending and
inveterate. Uncompromising rigidity has been the attitude of courts of
equity when petitioned to undermine the rule of undivided loyalty by the
‘disintegrating erosion’ of particular exceptions.

Meinhard v. Salmon, 249 N.Y. 458, 464, 164 N.E. 545 (1928) (citing 62 A.L.R. 1). A

trustee’s every action must be above suspicion. See Clark v. Clark, 167 Ga. 1, 5 (1928).

“Trustees can never be allowed to derive a personal advantage from the use of the trust

property.” Hanson v. First State Bank & Trust Co., 259 Ga. 710, 714 n. 7 (1989) (quoting

Perdue v. McKenzie, 194 Ga. 356, 368 (1942); citing Caruthers v. Corbin, 38 Ga. 75

(1868); Roberts v. Mansfield, 38 Ga. 452, 458 (1868); Mayor & c. of Macon v. Huff, 60

Ga. 221, 228 (1878)). It need only be shown that:

[T]hat the fiduciary allowed himself to be placed in a position where his

personal interest might conflict with the interest of the beneficiary. It is
unnecessary to show that the fiduciary succumbed to this temptation, that
he acted in bad faith, that he gained an advantage, fair or unfair, that the
beneficiary was harmed. Indeed, the law presumes that the fiduciary acted
disloyally, and inquiry into such matters is foreclosed.

Fulton Nat. Bank v. Tate, 363 F.2d 562, 571 (5th Cir. 1966).

District Attorney Willis accordingly owed the State and County strict duties of

trust. See Croy v. Whitfield Cnty., 301 Ga. 380, 384 (2017) (finding that a county attorney

“owe[d] the utmost loyalty and diligence to the county, not only as a consequence of his

acceptance of a public office of trust, but also because his professional responsibilities as

a lawyer demand[ed] it”); Haraguchi v. Superior Ct., 43 Cal. 4th 706, 709 (2008)

(“Prosecutors are public fiduciaries”). District Attorney Willis has breached those duties

of trust in knowingly causing hundreds of thousands in State or County funds to be paid

to her boyfriend, and by knowingly accepting gratuities from Mr. Wade.

27
iii. District Attorney Willis’ Conduct Violated Georgia Law Governing The
Employment of Assistant District Attorneys

District Attorney Willis’ employment of Mr. Wade as an assistant district attorney

was unlawful. Georgia law permits a district attorney to employ:

[S]uch additional assistant district attorneys, deputy district attorneys, or

other attorneys, investigators, paraprofessionals, clerical assistants, victim
and witness assistance personnel, and other employees or independent
contractors as may be provided for by local law or as may be authorized by
the governing authority of the county or counties comprising the judicial
circuit.

O.C.G.A. § 15-18-20(a). District Attorney Willis failed to obtain authorization from Fulton

County to employ Mr. Wade or the other private attorneys representing the District

Attorney’s Office in this action under section 15-18-20(a). On the contrary, District

Attorney Willis knowingly concealed her personal relationship with Mr. Wade from the

County as well as from the Court and the defense.

The Court of Appeals, in Greater Georgia Amusements, LLC v. State, identified an

exception to section 15-18-20(a)’s requirement that a district attorney obtain

authorization from the governing authority to employ additional attorneys where the

representation is for “a specific case…” 317 Ga. App. 118, 120 (2012) (quoting State v.

Cook, 172 Ga. App. 433, 437 (1984)). However, the District Attorney’s Office’s

employment agreement with Mr. Wade was not limited to a specific case, rendering the

alleged exception to section 15-18-20(a) inapplicable.

Georgia law further provides that “[a]ny assistant district attorney, deputy district

attorney, or other attorney at law employed by the district attorney who is compensated

in whole or in part by state funds shall not engage in the private practice of law.” O.C.G.A.

28
§ 15-18-21(a). By his own admission, Mr. Wade is still engaged in the private practice of

law.16 See Opposition, Exhibit A, ¶ 25.

Additionally, Mr. Wade has been compensated, at least in part, with forfeiture

proceeds.17 O.C.G.A. § 9-16-18(a) provides that “[a]ll property declared to be forfeited

vests with the state at the time of commission of the conduct giving rise to the forfeiture

together with the proceeds of the property after that time.” O.C.G.A. § 9-16-18(a). Yet Mr.

Wade and the other private attorneys employed by the District Attorney’s Office have

continued to engage in the private practice of law, in violation of section 15-18-21(a).

District Attorney Willis’ employment and compensation of Mr. Wade and the other

private attorneys to prosecute this action was in contravention of law, and warrants the

disqualification of District Attorney Willis and her Office. See State v. Culbreath, 30

S.W.3d 309, 313 (Tenn. 2000) (holding that the involvement of attorney paid by special

interest group in the investigation and prosecution of the defendant created “an

appearance of impropriety that required disqualification of the District Attorney… and

his office”).

16District Attorney Willis concedes this point in her Opposition to the Roman Motion to
Dismiss, when she acknowledges that after Mr. Wade was hired as a special prosecutor,
this case became his “primary focus.” See Opposition, p. 19. The contracts themselves
show that Mr. Wade was hired and re-hired for “anti-corruption matters.” Id., Exhibit H
(stating that the DA’s office was contracting with Wade for “legal services regarding anti-
corruption matters”). Even in her Opposition, District Attorney Willis cannot and does
not claim that Mr. Wade was hired for a specific case, rendering the exception upon which
she heavily relies inapplicable.

Mr. Wade’s receipt of forfeiture funds is detailed at length in Defendant Robert David
17

Cheeley’s Motion to Dismiss the Grand Jury Indictment and Disqualify the District
Attorney, Her Office, and The Special Prosecutors, filed January 26, 2024, which Mr.
Shafer has adopted.
29
 iv. District Attorney Willis’ Conduct Violated Ethics Rules

The Fulton County Code of Ethics (Code of Ethics) states that it is “essential” to the

proper government and administration of the County that officers and employees of the

County “are in fact and in appearance, independent and impartial in the performance of

their official duties; that public service not be used for private gain; and that there be

public confidence in the integrity of the county.” Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-66(a).

Officers and employees should aspire to avoid even the appearance of a

conflict of interest by avoiding conduct or circumstances that would provide
a reasonable basis for the impression that the officer’s or employee’s ability
to protect the public interest or impartially perform an official act is
compromised by his or her financial or personal interests in the matter or
transaction. The appearance of a conflict of interest can exist even in the
absence of an actual conflict of interest.

Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-66(b). The County’s Code of Ethics states that “[n]o

officer or employee shall perform, or fail to perform, any official act or influence others to

perform, or fail to perform, any official act, on a matter in which the officer or employee

knows, or reasonably should know, they have an interest that may be affected.” Fulton

Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-68(a). County officers and employees cannot “directly or

indirectly solicit, request, exact, receive, or agree to receive a gift, loan, favor, promise, or

thing of value, in any form whatsoever, for himself, herself, or another person, from any

prohibited source,” Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-69(a), with a value greater than $100,

see Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-69(c). As with the County’s Disclosure Reports, a

“prohibited source” is any person who “is seeking to do or is doing business with the

county…” Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-67(s).

The County’s Code of Ethics also provides that “[n]o officer or employee shall

engage in any activity or transaction that is prohibited by any law, now existing or

hereafter enacted, which is applicable to him or her by virtue of his or her office or

30
position.” Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-78. County officials and employees must file

income and financial disclosure reports with the Clerk of the Fulton County Board,

disclosing “any gift(s) or favor(s) from a single prohibited source in the aggregate value

or amount of $100.00 or more…” Fulton Cnty. Code Ethics, Sec. 2-79(b)(3).

District Attorney Willis violated these provisions of the County’s Code of Ethics

through employing Mr. Wade with whom she had an undisclosed romantic relationship,

paying Mr. Wade hundreds of thousands of dollars in County funds and accepting gifts

from him which she did not disclose to the County. Indeed, by receiving the trips and

vacations, District Attorney Willis received gifts and things of value for herself from a

prohibited source. District Attorney Willis has furthermore violated her fiduciary duties

as an attorney representing the State of Georgia and Fulton County. “All transactions

between an attorney and h[er] client are closely scrutinized by the courts, and the

attorney’s duty in these circumstances is a much higher duty than is required in ordinary

business dealings where the parties trade at arms length.” Arey v. Davis, 233 Ga. 951,

955-956 (1975) (citing Am.Jur.2d 105-107, Attorneys at Law, §§ 93, 94 & 95; 2 E.G.L. 531,

Attorney and Client, § 92. (No. 29570)).

C. Consequences

District Attorney Willis has earned the disqualification of both herself and her

Office from representing the State of Georgia in this case as a result of her personal,

financial conflicts of interest, which are the product of her conduct in dereliction of the

law, her duties of trust and ethical rules, and as a consequence of her repeated, prejudicial

public statements designed to damage the defendants. “‘The administration of the law,

and especially that of the criminal law, should, like Caesar’s wife, be above suspicion, and

should be free from all temptation, bias or prejudice, so far as it is possible for our courts

31
to accomplish it...’” Davenport v. State, 157 Ga. App. 704, 705–706 (1981) (quoting

Nichols v. State, 17 Ga. App. 593, 606 (1915)). In the interest of protecting the defendants’

right to a fair trial by a disinterested prosecution, the Court should order the

disqualification of District Attorney Willis and her Office.

D. Disqualification of District Attorney Willis Requires the Disqualification

of The District Attorney’s Office

If District Attorney Willis is found to be subject to disqualification in this action,

then the District Attorney’s Office and all assistant and special assistant district attorneys

therein are likewise disqualified. “When the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified

from a case, the assistant district attorneys—whose only power to prosecute a case is

derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them—

have no authority to proceed.” McLaughlin, 295 Ga. at 613. Disqualification of a district

attorney is distinct from the mere disqualification of one of the district attorney’s

assistants. “The elected district attorney is not merely any prosecuting attorney. [Sh]e is

a constitutional officer, and there is only one such officer in each judicial circuit,” id. at

612 (citing Ga. Const., Art. VI, Sec. VIII, Para. I(a)). Under the Georgia Constitution, a

district attorney possesses the duty “to represent the state in all criminal cases in the

superior court of such district attorney’s circuit…” Ga. Const., Art. 6, § 8, ¶ I(d) (emphasis

added); see also McLaughlin, at 294 (“a Georgia district attorney is of counsel in all

criminal cases or matters pending in his circuit”) (citing Lane v. State, 238 Ga. 407, 408–

410 (1977); Clifton v. State, 187 Ga. 502, 504 (1939)). A criminal proceeding “‘is under

the direction, supervision, and control of [the district attorney], subject to such restriction

as the law imposes.’” McLaughlin, at 293 (quoting Jackson v. State, 156 Ga. 842, 850

(1923)). All other attorneys employed by a district attorney’s office “‘can perform no

32
duties as such except those agreeable to and under the direction of the [district

attorney].’” McLaughlin, at 293-294 (quoting Jackson v. State, 156 Ga. 842, 850 (1923));

see also DeKalb Cty. v. DRS Investments, Inc., 260 Ga. App. 225, 227 (2003) (“‘public

sector attorneys can exercise only those powers defined and conferred by law’”) (quoting

City of Atlanta v. Black, 265 Ga. 425, 427 (1995); citing O.C.G.A. § 45-6-5). In the event

that District Attorney Willis is ordered disqualified in this action, her Office must also be

ordered disqualified. Furthermore, any special assistant district attorneys appointed by

District Attorney Willis must be disqualified. A “special assistant district attorney is

appointed by the district attorney and therefore derives all of his or her power or authority

to prosecute a case from the district attorney.” Order issued November 11, 2016, State v.

Brown, case number 11-9-2482-40 (Super. Ct. Cobb Cnty. 2016) (granting the

defendant’s motion to disqualify the District Attorney for the Cobb Judicial Circuit and

his office, and the special assistant district attorneys employed by the District Attorney).

E. An Evidentiary Hearing Is Necessary

An evidentiary hearing is necessary on the defense’s disqualification motions for

the reason that there are material facts which are in dispute. The prosecution’s Opposition

to the Roman Motion to Dismiss attaches a declaration by Mr. Wade wherein he swears

that his personal relationship with District Attorney Willis began after his hiring in

November of 2021 as a special assistant district attorney. There is no declaration or

affidavit from District Attorney Willis, however, the filing was filed in her name as District

Attorney. Of course, she cannot file such a filing if she knows that it contains materially

false statements. Mr. Roman’s reply filed on February 2, 2024, represents that several

witnesses will directly refute Mr. Wade’s declaration. If the testimony of these witnesses

proves credible, the inexorable conclusion would be that Mr. Wade has made false

33
statements in his declaration which has been filed by the District Attorney or on her behalf

in the record in this case, and which would constitute yet another instance of forensic

misconduct by the District Attorney and her Office.

Additionally, Mr. Wade declares that expenses for personal travel were roughly

divided equally between Mr. Wade and District Attorney Willis. Presently, the public

filings in the Wade divorce proceeding and the “example” of District Attorney Willis

purchasing tickets for herself and Mr. Wade are not remotely “roughly” equal. An

evidentiary hearing is necessary to obtain a complete financial picture of the gifts and

benefits which Mr. Wade has bestowed on District Attorney Willis.

A full evidentiary hearing on the motions to disqualify the District Attorney, Mr.

Wade and the District Attorney’s Office is needed to obtain the true transparency.

Uniform Superior Court Rule states that “all” motions “shall” be heard at a time and place

set by the judge, prior to trial. See Uni. Super. Ct. R. 31.2. An evidentiary hearing would

permit the defense to develop the evidence relating to the grounds for disqualification of

District Attorney Willis and Mr. Wade and, upon information and belief, would assist the

Court in adjudicating the defendants’ disqualification arguments. The Court should a full

evidentiary hearing on February 15, 2024, as initially set, to discover the truth relating to

these matters.

Counsel understands and appreciates that an evidentiary hearing regarding the

District Attorney’s forensic misconduct and the financial aspects of District Attorney

Willis and Mr. Wade’s personal relationship that create these disqualifying conflicts of

interest is unseemly and an uncomfortable experience for all involved. Counsel does not

pursue these claims lightly.

34
 But, as noted, District Attorney Willis and Mr. Wade are not victims here—these

are all self-inflicted and completely avoidable errors in which the defense had no hand,

but are of such significance that the defense has no choice but to put them before the

Court.

And, in the big picture here, this discomfort pales in comparison to what Mr.

Shafer--a presumptively and actually innocent man--has endured. His life has been

upended by unwarranted and meritless charges filed by District Attorney Willis (that she

does not have the legal authority or jurisdiction to pursue). Mr. Shafer obeyed the law,

following the explicit, detailed, oral and written legal advice by no less than five learned

and reputable attorneys, and the only existing American precedent. He now finds his

liberty and livelihood threatened by the powerful levers of law enforcement that have been

improperly weaponized against him. Through her extrajudicial and prejudicial

statements, District Attorney Willis has further weaponized the media, the public, and

now even the church against him. An evidentiary hearing on the matters set forth in the

disqualification motions is critical for the parties and the Court to have sufficient

information to understand the full nature of District Attorney Willis' misconduct and

conflicts of interest and to assure the impartial administration of justice promised to every

citizen who stands accused of a crime.

CONCLUSION

Based upon the facts and authorities set forth herein, defendant David J. Shafer

respectfully requests that the Court grant defendant’s Motion to Disqualify The District

Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, Atlanta Judicial Circuit, and The District Attorney’s

Office from Further Prosecution of This Action and order that Fulton County, Georgia,

35
Atlanta Judicial Circuit, District Attorney Fani T. Willis and her office are disqualified
from representing the State of Georgia in this action.
Respectfully submitted, this 5th day of February, 2024,
's/ Craig A. Gille
Craig A. Gillen
Georgia Bar No. 204838
Anthony C. Lake
Georgia Bar No. 431149
GILLEN & LAKE LLC

/s/ Holly A. Pierson _ _

Holly A. Pierson
Georgia Bar No. 579655
PIERSON LAW LLC

‘Counsel for David J. Shafer

36
 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
Thereby certify that I have this sth day of February, 2024, filed the foregoing filing
with the Court using the Court's Odyssey eFileGa system, serving copies of the filing on
all counsel of record in this action, and furthermore have sent a copyofthe filing to the
parties and the Court.
/s/ Craig A. Gillen
Craig A. Gillen
Georgia Bar No. 204838
Anthony C. Lake
Georgia Bar No. 431149
GILLEN & LAKE LLC

Counsel for David J. Shafer

37
EXHIBIT A
 @he Washington Post

THE TRUMP CASES

Fani Willis, Trump Georgia case prosecutor, ends silence on
misconduct accusations
She didn't directly address the most salacious allegations but suggested racism is at
the heart of claims against her

© ByHollyBailey,
January 14, 2024 at 5:18 p.m. EST

ATLANTA — Nearly one week afer Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) was accusedofhiring a
romantic partner to lead a sprawling election-nterference cas against former president Donald Trump and then
financially benefitingfromhis salary, Willis broke her silence ina Sunday speech before the congregation ofa
historic Black church in Atlanta, suggesting racism was at the heartof the allegations.

Wills did not deny or directly address the most salacious allegations, but she pushed back on claims that she had
done anything improper in hiring outside attorney Nathan Wadeto lead the case. Ina 35-minute speech befor the
Big BethelAME Church that was at turns emotional and fey, Willi suggested race had played a ole in eiticsm of
her, a Black woman and the first female district attorney in Fulton County, and Wade, a Black man.

Willis criticized those who had seized on the allegations — offered without proof in a court fling by one of Trump's
co-defendants —calling out by name Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has pushed for criminal
investigation into Willis and Wade.

“They are going to be mad when I call them out on this nonsense,” Willis said. “First thing they say, ‘Oh, she's going
to play the race card.’ But...isn't it them playing the race card when they think I need someone in some other
jurisdiction in some other sate to tell me how to dojob I'e been doing almost 30 years?”
‘Without naming Wade, Willis strongly defended him, describing him as a lawyerof“impeccable credentials” with
decades of experience who helped assemble the prosecution team and bring the case against Trump and more than a
dozen ofhis alles
‘Wills did not address the claim that she had a romantic relationship with Wade, an allegation leveled in a filing by
Mike Roman, one ofTrump's remaining 14 co-defendants in the criminalcase and a high-ranking campaign aide
during the 2020 election. She repeatedly referred toherselfas a “flawed” and “imperfect” public servant — pointing
to how Martin Luther King,Jr. was also an imperfect human being called to public service and changing the world.
“The only perfect person was Jesus, Wills told the congregation.
“Today, what he has brought you is his very flawed, hardheaded and imperfect servant,” she said.
‘Throughout her remarks, Willis seemed to nod at some of the allegations. Roman alleged in his filing that Wade
used money he earnedas a special prosecutor — his firm has been paid more than $650,000 bythedistrict
attorney's office since he was tapped as an outside prosecutor on the case in November 2021 —to fund lavish
vacations with Wills. Motioning to her clothing, Wills pointedly said she had put on her most “lavish” outfit for the
occasion — a $20.99 black dress from the discount retailer Ross.
‘Wills repeatedly declared that it washer “right” as district attorney to appointa special prosecutor
—and pointed
out that she had hired three outside attorneys, not just Wade, to work on the election interference case.
In addition to Wade, Wills retained John Floyd, a nationally known expert on racketeering laws, and Anna Cross, a
former prosecutor who has assisted the district attomey’s office in recent federal court arguments. She described all
three lawyers as legal “superstars” and, she pointedly added, were longtime personal friends. She questioned why
ries weren't attacking her hiring of Cross and Floyd, and she suggested it was because they are White.
“Lama litle confused. I appointed three special counsel, which is my right to do. Paid them all the same hourly rate.
They only attack one,” Willis said of her critics. “Why are they surprised that a diverse team that have assembled.
can accomplish an extraordinary thing?”
‘Wills acknowledged the personal tol the allegations against her have taken — describing the past several days as a
“low point” in her time as district attorney, in which she has already faced threats, including racially motivated
attacks, tied to her handlingof the Trump case and other high-profile indictments she has pursued.
Willis spokeofthe unexpected “loneliness” and ugliness that had come with thejob, and called out her critics,
mentioning Green specifically.
“Dear God, I do not want to be like those that attacked me,” Willis said. “I never want to be a MarjorieTaylor
‘Greene, who has never met me but has allowed her spirit to be filled with hate. How does this woman, who has the
honor of beinga leader in my state, how isit that she has not reached out to me?
“She can tell me, I don't agree with anything you're doing, but I do not agree with people threatening your life o the
lifeofyour family, Willis added. “How did such a woman come to think that it was normal and normalized that
another woman was worthyofsuch ruelty? I would never wish for her to have the experiences or the threats that I
receive, the derogatory name calling, the being doxed multiple times.”
“The filing from Roman last week provided no evidence to back up the allegations. Ashleigh Merchant, a prominent
‘Cobb County defense attorney who represents Roman, later told The Washington Post that the claims were based on
Sources that she did not name, as well as records she said had been disclosed as partofWade's ongoing divorce
proceedings but were filed under seal.
On Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he planned to schedule a hearing nest month to
address the allegations — but was first waiting to see a response from Willis. A spokesman for Wills said last week
that the district attorney would formally respond to the allegations in a court filing, which has yet to be submitted.
‘Wills’ remarks Sunday, while not fully addressing the allegations, marked the endofdaysofsilence on an issue
that has proved to be both legally and politically fraught in a high-profile case that has already drawn intense public
Scrutiny and attacks from Trump and his supporters. Green and others have seized on the allegations, urging
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and other state officials to investigate. On Friday, Kemp,a key witness in the case
against Trump, called the claims “deeply troubling.”
“Evidence should be presented quickly in order for Judge MeAfee to rule and the public to have confidence in this
trial moving forward,” Kemp told reporters, according to the Atlanta Journal:Constitution.
‘Sunday was the first time Willis had been seen in public since Roman's motion. Her appearance at Big Bethel AME
as part ofa special Sunday service honoring King ahead of the holiday that honors him Monday had been previously
scheduled, and though her office suggested she intended to honor the invitation as the church's keynote speaker, it
was not clear Willis would talk about the controversy.
News of her impending appearance was the leading news story on local television Sunday, and as Wills entered the
church sanctuary to the soaring soundtrackof a choir and an archival audioof a sermon from King urging followers
tokeep strong in their faith, her every move was trailed by a bank of local news cameras set up in the church
balcony.
‘Wills was introduced by Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, the presiding bishopofthe AME Sixth Episcopal District of
‘Georgia, who praised her as a “purposeful and principled” prosecutor who has been dedicated to herjob and seeking
justice. “She has been faithful to her oath and to the people of Fulton County,” Jackson said.
‘Taking the pulpit, Willis appeared almost immediately emotional, asking the congregation to give her a moment, I
hopefory'all ths week Idon't look like what I've been through,” she said.
Willis spoke at length at the tol that thejob as district attorney had taken on her personal life — speaking about a
‘swatting incident that had taken place at her home outside Atlanta on Christmas where a caller had reported that
‘someone had been shot. Wills, who said she has not been living at her home becauseof threats, said at first she had
feared that one of her adult children who might have been there had been injured or killed. She eventually learned it
was lla hoax.
‘Wills said she had leaned heavily on her Christian faith as district attorney — especially in recent days. She spoke of
speaking to God about the rials she faced and how being Fulton County's top prosecutor had brought more pressure
than she ever expected.
“Sevenof the highest-profie cases in the United States going to land right here?” Willis said. “No, please make it
stop. God, you forgot to mention that my life and the life of my family would be threatened so regularly, I now think
it's not normalif don't have two death threats a week. God, you did not tell me that people would call me the n-
word more than they call me Fani.”
2320, 918A Fun County
DAFar Wilks fenssocal posto towing allegation of oat lator
-ABC News

Fulton County DA Fani Willis defends special prosecutor following

allegation of romantic relationship
TheDA called herself flawed” and “imperfect” duringchurch remarks.
binsatin
ove

Fulton County Distiet Attorney Ean Wills spoke at church in Atlanta Sunday morningwhereshegave emotional
and passionate remarks that appeared to acknowledge for the firstimethe ffirallegations leveled against her ast
week, whileasodefending thespecial prosecutor shebrought inforthe elction interference case against Donald
“Trump.
“hopefor yal this week I don't look ike what I'vebeen through, she joked as she spoke Sunday at the ig Bethel
Alican Methodist Episcopal Church during aservice o celebrate Martin LutherKing J. Day.
One of former President Trump's co-defendants in hisGeorgia election interference casei seeking t dismiss the
indictment against himanddisqualify DA Wills, alleging she “engaged in a personal, omantic relationship” with
oneofthe top prosecutors she brought into work on thecase, which allegedly resulted in financial gain for othof
them.

MORE: Co-defendant inTrump'sGeorgia sectioncase seekstodisqualfy DA. alleging romantic >

relationship with prosecutor

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12320, 918A00 Fullon County DAFaniWis defen speci prosecutor folowing allegation of manic elatonship -ABC News
Inthe court filing Monday, formerTrump campaignstaffmember Michael Roman accused Willis of having
‘potentially committed “an act todefraud the publicofhonest services" based on her “intentional failure” todisclose:
the allegedrelationship thatsheallegedly “personally benefited from.
“The127-pagefiling from Roman's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, alleged the prosecutor, Nathan Wade, has a‘lackof
relevantexperience”but has been paid approximately $650,000 in legal fes since being appointed to the ole
which thefilingclaimswas “self-serving arrangement. Trump'satormey said in court on Friday that they're
considering joining in thecomplaint agains Willi.
‘During her remarks Sunday, which were livestreamed, Wills repeatedly referred to herself a flawed" and
“imperfect.”

MORE: Judge
inTrump's Georgia lection case targets February for hearing on Fani Wills >
alogatons

Wills also said she was"alittleconfused” why so manyquestioned the decision to bring in multiple special
prosecutors tothecase,and though she nevermentioned Wade by name,shecalled him a “great friend"who was
paid equally to others while extensively defending his“impeccablecredentials” for the job ~ suggesting the attacks
on him were motivated by race.
“Lappointed three special counselors. I's my right to do. Paid themal the same hourlyrate”Willssaid. “Theyonly
attackone. hired onewhitewoman: agood persona friend andgreat lawyer, a superstar, tel you. I hired one
white mans brilliant, my friend, and agreat lawyer. And1 hired one Black man, another superstar, a great friend,
anda great lawyer.”
Wills never denied ordirectly addressed the allegations she and Wade had an inappropriate relationship. She
continued totout Wade's ésumé, saying hewas paid more than doublewhen hired by a Republican in another
‘county, and that he"servedas aprosecutor, acriminal defense lawyer, special assistant attorneygeneral.”
“Ist themplaying the race card when theyonly question one?” she sald.

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faced ner positon as Fulton County DA and prosecuting theTrump cae. Sh spoke about eling isolation.”
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Spesking bout rests agains er, often fueled by ace, sh sd she and he fly members lv have been
hestened sorely, now thinkin moma don have wo death threats a we k”
“hey call meth Nevord ore than theyll meFan. sh sd, while ning ha he ome has ben swep
“multiple mes for boris. She sd he now spends”: days and nights insti,
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“1 never wan tobe ik those who attack me. never wat 0 be fike Marre Taylor Greene, who as never mek me
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Sill, Wil outed the accomplishmentsofher eam, ying they hae "wins,wins, wins’ and 95% conviction rae.
“Ithank youfor every attack tha makes me stronger she sad.
Merchant is pushing back onWills suggestion in church onSundaythattheallegationsagainstherand thespecial
prosecutorwere motivated by race, eying, “This has nothing todo withthe coloofhissin.”
“Ifanybodydoubts our claim that [Nathan]Wade i inexperienced. askhim how many RICO cases he has handled.
skim how many felonies he has ried,Merchant sad (0 ABC News.
he diference between Wade and the other special prosecutors rough in towork on the caseare the relationship
allegations, according toMerchant.
“Thebigaest diference between Ns, Cross, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wade is that Ms Wills is ot inarelationship with
Ns. Cros and Mr loc” Merchant sid. “And nether, ross nor Mr lo avetakenMs.Willi toCalifornia,
Florida or in crisstotheCaribbean.”
Merchant reterate that she “would ever ile motion thatwe did not haveevidence tosupport
“Ife need to prove the allegations inopen court westand ready and welcome the chance she sad.
Roman. Trumpand 17 others pleaded not guilty in August all charges inaseepingracketeeringIndictment for
alleged efforts to overturn the resus ofthe 2020 presidential election ithe tateofGeorgia. Defendants Kenneth
Chesebro, Sidney Powell Jena Els and Scot Hal subsequently took lea deals n exchangefo agreeing o testify
against other defendants.
“he former presenthaslasted he istic attorney’ investigation abeing polically motivated.
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Fulton DA defends special prosecutor during church speech

Fani Willis speaks publicly for first time since bombshell allegations
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Fulton County District Atormey Fani Will delivers marks at ig Bethel AME Church during a special tribute
honoring Rev. Martin LutherKing Jr. onSunday, Jan. 14, 2024. Miguel Martinez
Imiguelmartinezjimenezasic.com

By Shaddi Abusaid
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are having an “improper” relationship.
Speaking publiclyfor the first time since last week's court filing accusedher of hiring a
romanticpartner to help prosecute the formerpresident, Wills told the congregation at Big
Bethel AME Church that attorney Nathan Wade is a legal “superstar” who is uniquely
qualified for the role.

Expl Filingalleges‘improper’ relationship between Fulton DA, top Trump

Xplore oiccuor
Without ever addressing him by name, Wills referred to Wade as “a great friend and a great
lawyer" and said he is paid the same hourly rate as the other two special prosecutors hired to
assist with the case. She did not deny or confirm that the two are romantically involved.

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Robert McBurney at a roughly90-minute hearing Friday did not come to a final decision about what exactly the District
Attorney's office can ask Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Wiliam Ligonof Brunsick and several other unnamed
state legislators. But h ssid tha anything relate o their conversations with other lsgislators or motivations are off-imits.
(Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shingajc.com)
“hore
Last weeks court filing, from defendant and former Trump campaign operative Michael
Roman, alleges that Willis hired Wade after they became romantically involved and that
Wade, a private attorney, paid for vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds
his law firm received for the work on the elections case.
The document did not include any concrete evidence but indicated that some relevant
information was included in Wade's sealed divorce proceedings. Roman's attorney, Ashleigh
Merchant, has said she’s trying to get those records unsealed.
County records show that Wade — who led prosecutors’ presentation to the special grand
jury, signed off on subpoenas, interviewed key witnesses and negotiated immunity deals in
the case — has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022.
Critics of the Trump probe have seized on the news to question Willis’ judgment and frame
the case as irreparably tainted.

Momentsafter Willis’ remarks inAtlanta, Trump was at a pre-caucus rally in Indianola, lowa,
saying the allegations against Willis and Wade are proof the case against him should be
dropped.
"You saw Fani Wills gave her boyfriend a million bucks to go get Trump, right?” he said,
exaggerating the amount the special prosecutor has been paid so far for his work on the
case. “She's been exposed, | can't imagine they can continue on with that case”
Emotional at times during her 36-minute speech, Wills read from a letter that she said she
penned to God during a particularly trying week.

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Standing in front of thechoir during the historic Black church's Martin Luther King Jr.-
themed service,Willis noted that theother two special prosecutors on the Trump case, John
Floyd and Anna GreenCross, are bothwhite. She did not mention those two by name.

“They only attacked one,” Wills told the congregation.

Explore Fulton DA Fani Wills to speak at Atlanta's oldest Black church on Sunday

“First thing they say, ‘Oh, she's gonna play the race card now" Wills said. “But no God, isn't it
them that's playing the race card when they only question one? Isn't it them playing the race
card when they constantly think | need someone from some otherjurisdiction in some other
state to tell me how to do a job I've been doing almost 30 years?”

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experience arguing high-profile cases, including the Dunwoody day care and Jamil Al-Amin
murder cases, has been deployed twice by Willis to argue during two key courtroom
moments in the Trump case.

According to billing documents reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cross’ firm

has been paid almost $43,000 for her work on the election interference case and Floyd's has
been paid $73,000bythe DA's office.
Records obtained through an Open Records Act request and reviewed by The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution show that Cross was paid $250 an hourfor herwork and Floyd $150 or
$200 an hour for his services. Wade has been paid $250 an hour for his services, records
show.
Wills called Wade “a lawyer with impeccable credentials,” and tried to downplay some of the
criticism hurled his way in recent days.

Explore Who is Nathan Wade, Fulton special prosecutor in Trump case?

“The Black man | chose has been a judge more than 10 years, run a private practice more
than 20, represented businesses in civil litigation — | ain't done y'all,’ the veteran prosecutor
said, as some in the audience voiced their support. “Served as a prosecutor,a criminal
defense lawyer, special assistant attorney general .”
Willis mentioned an award Wade received from the State Bar of Georgia, telling the church,
“You know they ain't just giving this to Black men”
She also alluded to work Wade previously did for former Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren.
“How come, God, the same Black man | hired was acceptable when a Republican in another
county hired him and paid him twice the rate?” she asked to a smattering of cheers and
applause. “Why is the white male Republican's judgment good enough, but the Black female
Democrats’ not?”

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custody. Three months later, an Atlanta tolevision station sucd Warren, accusing him of
manufacturing a fake investigation to circumvent open records laws. Wade defended his
work. A judge later ordered the sheriff to release the records.
Merchant's motion seeks to have the charges against Roman dismissed and for Willis, Wade
and the entire DA's office to be disqualified from further prosecution of Georgia's election
interference case.
“If anybody doubts our claim that Wade is inexperienced, ask him how many RICO cases he
has handled,” Merchant said Sunday in a statement. “Ask him how many felonies he has tried.
This has nothing to do with the color of his skin.
“The biggest difference between Ms. Cross, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wade is that Ms. Willis is not in
a relationship with Ms. Cross and Mr. Floyd” Merchant continued. “We look forward to
litigating these issues in court”
Willis’ spokesman has said the DA will respond to Merchant's allegations in an upcoming
courtfiling, though it's still unclearwhen that wil be submitted.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, said Friday that he
would schedule a hearing on the matter after Willis weighs in formally.
From thepulpit, Wills said she and her family are threatened so often, that it's “not normal if |
don’t have two death threats a week.”

“People call me the n-word more than they call me Fani," she said, recounting a Christmas
night “doxing”in which a man reportedly called 911 and said he'd just shot a woman at her
address.

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DAof Fulton County Fani Wills speaks during Sunday's worship service atthe Big Bethel AME Churchin Atlanta. Miguel
Martinez miguel martinezjmenezesic.com
Willis also mentioned U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been an outspoken critic of
the district attorney and her efforts to prosecute the former president.
“Dear God, | do not want to be like those that attack me,"Willis said.“| never want to a
MarjorieTaylor Greene, who has never met me, but has allowed her spirit to be filled with
hate”
Sporting a black dress she said she picked up at Ross Dress for Less for $30, Willis appeared
tobe in good spirits.
“I hopefor yall this week | don't look like what I've been through,”
she told the crowd.
AJC staff writers Bill Rankin, Tamar Hallerman and Patricia Murphy contributed to this article.

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What you need to know about the drama surrounding
Fulton County DA Fani Willis
Wills leading Donald ump Georgi indictment | Now alge o have had improper affair with special prosecutor in the case

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 The Washington Post
Democracy Dis in Darkness
THE TRUMP CASES
Judge in Trump Georgia case orders hearing on Fani Willis
misconduct claims
By Amy Gardner andHollyBailey
Updated January 18,2024 at 9:21 pn. EST| Published January 18, 2024 at 1256 pin. EST
Astatejudge overseeing the lection interference case against former president Donald Trump in Georgia has
scheduled a hearing for Feb. 15 to hear evidence regarding accusations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T.
‘Willis (D) and her lead prosecutor engaged in an improper relationship and mishandled public money.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee also wrote in his order that Willis must respond to the
accusations in writing by Feb. 2. Willis has declined to directly address the explosive accusations that first came to
light last week ina fling from one of Trump's co-defendants, former campaignaide Mike Roman. The fling did not
include evidence to substantiate the claims.

McAfee’ order, which was obtained and first reportedbyThe Washington Post, could force Willis to address the
allegations in televised court proceedings, a development that could at least be embarrassing for the district attorney
and at worst forherderail the investigation completely. The district attorney separately signaled Thursday that she.
plans to fight theeffortsto disqualify her from the cae, linga motion to block
asubpoena that could force her to
testify in the contentious divorce case of her lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade.

Roman's filing called for Willis and Wade to be disqualified and for the entire case to be dismissed. Roman, Trump
and 13 others are accused ofcriminally conspiring to overturn Trump's 2020 election oss in Georgia. Trump is the
subjectofthree other criminal investigations, two
ofthem in federal court and one in New York.
A spokesman for Willis on Thursday repeated the only statement the office has issued on the allegations so far —
that “we will respond in court.”
On Sunday, Willis broke her silence on the subject, delivering a fiery speech before the congregationof a historic
Black church in Atlanta. She did not deny or directly address the most salacious allegations against her and Wade,
though she did describeherselfas a “flawed” and “imperfect” public servant and referenced “the loneliness of this
position.”
“God, why would you send this imperfect and very flawed person up to that position?” Wills said at the Big Bethel
AME Church. “God, you did not tell me my home would be swept multiple times for bombs or that most days and
nights that I would spend them in isolation because that was the safest place to be. You forgot to mention, Lord, that
I would have to abandon my home. You forgot to mention the loneliness of this position. And you certainly didn't tell
me about the stress.”
Yet Willis pushed back on claims she had done anything improper in hiring Wade,a private attorney, to work asa
special prosecutor on the Trump case and suggested race had played a role in the eriticism of her, a Black woman
‘and the first female district attorney in Fulton County, and Wade, a Black man.
“I appointed three special counsel, which is my right to do. Paid them all the same hourly rate. They only attack
one,” Willis said.
‘Wills's office has paid Wade's law firm more than $650,000 over the last two years. The Washington Post has
requested, but not yet received, copies of contracts for other outside attorneys on the case as well as copies of their
expenses fled with the district attorney's office. However, Fulton County records show Wade's law firm has been
‘paid more than law firms associated with the other two attorneys.
Ina Jan. 8 motion, Roman claimed Wade's employment was improper and unethical because of an ongoing personal
relationship with Wills that predated Wade's hiring, The filing claimed that Willis had benefited personally from.
‘Wade's income from the case, alleging she had joined him on multiple cruises and other trips unrelated to work that
‘Wade had paid for.
‘Wade and Wills, Roman's fling claimed, were “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the
taxpayers.”
“The filing provided noproof to back up those claims.
Ashleigh Merchant, a prominent Cobb County defense attorney who represents Roman, later told The Post that the
claims were based on sources that she did not name, as well a records she said had been disclosed as partof Wade's
ongoing divorce proceedings.
“We're going to begin to serve subpoenas for documents and witnessesjust in case because we have not heard from
the DA’ office yet as to whether or not they are going to dispute the allegations raised in our motion,” Merchant said
“Thursday. “After Miss Wllis's speech on Sunday, it appears they are not disputing the allegations, but instead
focusing on other issues. If that i the case, we will shift our focus to those issues, but we will not know until the state
actually responds in writing.”
MeAfee's order came as other defense attorneys waited impatiently for clues as to what evidence Merchant and
Roman possess. Steve Sadow, an Atlanta-based criminal defense lawyer who represents Trump in the Georgia case,
asked MeAfee in court last week if he and other lawyers could be given some time to decide whether to sign on to
Roman's pleading, given that the evidence was sill unknown.
 McAfee appears to be trying to expedite that process by ordering the hearing — a hearing that Willis and her team
undoubtedly had wanted to avoid. It's not lear ifWills will argue in her response to limit the topics that can be
addressed at the hearing — orif that is a request that MeAfee would consider.
“Trump is sure to continue attacking Willis and Wade over the controversy, as he has done repeatedly since it came to
light. He has called all the prosecutions politically motivated witch hunts.
‘Willis tapped Wade to lead the Trump case in November 2021, at a time when he had litle experience prosecuting
criminal cases. He previously served as a municipal judge in the Atlanta area, where he mostly dealt with traffic
tickets and other misdemeanors. Wade also runs a private practice focused largely on family law, contract disputes
and criminal defense.
Williss decision to hire Wade is now facing enormous scrutiny. The accusations,iftrue, could present a conflict of
interest or could amount to fraud.Ifills or Wade recuse themselves from the case, i's unclearifsomeone else
within the district attorney's office would be permitted to lead it. Ifoneorboth are removed, the entire district
attorney’ office probably would be disqualified.
‘When ajudge barred Wills's office from investigating Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) for his role in Trump's
alternate-elector scheme in 2020 because Willis hosted a fundraiser for Jones's eventual Democratic opponent, it
fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council ofGeorgia to find a new prosecutor. So far, no one has been assigned the
case — perhaps an indicationofwhat could happen to the Trump case in similar circumstances.
“The Feb. 15 hearing is slated to occur afera scheduled Jan. 31 hearing in Cobb County Superior Court over a motion
to unseal records in Wade's divorce case. Merchant has said she believes records in that case will substantiate her
allegations of wrongdoing by Willis and Wade.
Acoalition of media organizations, including The Post, has also filed a motion to unseal the divorce record.
‘Wade's estranged wife, Joycelyn Mayfield Wade, subpoenaed records from FultonCounty and the Fulton County
district attorney's office last month, accusing Wadeoffiling to turn over discovery related to his income from his
roleas a special prosecutor.
On Jan. 8, hours before Roman fled his motion, Wade's wife served a subpoena on Willis fora scheduled deposition
on Jan. 23. Joycelyn Mayfield Wade's attorney has declined to comment on why Wills was subpoenaed or what she
maybe asked.
On Thursday, Willis sought to quash that subpoena, accusing Joycelyn Mayfield Wade of using the divorce case “as a
vehicle to harass” her andofcolluding with others to disrupt the racketeering case against Trump and his allies. The
motion was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The subpoena for the deposition of District Attorney Willis is being sought in an attempt to harass and damage her
professional reputation,” Cinque Axam, an attorney representing Wills, wrote in the motion. “On further
information and belief, defendant Joyeelyn Wade has conspired with interested parties in the criminal election
interference case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass and oppress District Attorney Wills.”
Wills's motion pointed out the close timing between the subpoena and Roman's filing as well as Merchant's motion
to unseal the divorce records. It said Fulton County and the Fulton County district attorney's office had complied
with Joyeelyn Mayfield Wade's subpoena for records related to her estranged husband.
Willis also claimed the subpoena was improperbecause it is “unlimited in scope” and does not specify what
information is being sought.
“Wills cannot provide unique personal knowledgeofany matter that is relevant toDefendant Wade's divorce,”
Axam wrote. “Because the partiesagree that the marriage i irretrievably broken and the concept for fault is not at
issue, there is no information that District Attorney Willis could provide that might prove relevant to granting or
denying the divorce.”
Andrea Dyer Hastings, an attorneyforJoyeelyn Mayfield Wade, declined to comment on Wills's claims, saying in a
statement that her client would respond in a court fling, But she erticized Wills for her public response in a case
where many filings remain under seal.
“We aim to help Ms. Wade resolve her divorce fairly and privately, but apparently Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis
would prefer to use her public platform,” Hastings said in a statement. “Clearly, this matter is personal for her.”
Merchant accused Wills of attempting “to create a conspiracy where none exists.”
“We filed Mr. Roman's motion on the day it was due, January 8th,” Merchant said. “We believe her filing in Cobb
County isjust another attempt to avoid having to directly answer the important questions Mr. Roman has raised.
She appears to be doingeverything she can to avoid having to account for inconvenient and difficult facts.”
IfWills is deposed, it probably would be transcribed and videotaped — records that could be made public if requests
to unseal Wade's divoree case are granted and that could possibly be introduced as evidence in the Feb. 15 hearing in
Fulton County.
Bailey reportedfrom Atlanta.
1232, 10:19 A Prosecutor in Trump Georgiacases ust ino spotight ver af clams |AP News.

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ATLANTA (4%) —FultonCountyDistrict AtormeyFan!Willshired attorney Nathan Wade to lead the Grgia
prosecution ofDonaldTu nd 18 ethersovrefforts toverturn the 2020 section. Now, allegations ofa
romantic lationship between Wis and Wade ae risingquestionsabout is past work and qualifications
andthreaten to taint one offourcriminalcases agains he former president.
‘Sh hasdefend hrhingofWade— who haste prosecutorial expaionce — an has not directly denied
romantic relationship. Th cam surfaced ast weakin motion fledby defense attorney representing
former Trumpcampaignstaffer,who dd notprovide concrete prof. The lawyers seeking (get the
indictment tossed nd oremoveWillsandWade from the case.
The district attorney's eatv silence for overaweek has alowed Trump andother critics to exploit the
aim a the former president vies towinback the White House, But while iscrested political storm, the
Tegal implicationsare es ler.
iescertainly ahuge pliical problem, ti certainly scandalous and salacious, ru said Anthony Michael
Kreis, aGeorgia State Uniersty law professor who's follwing th cas. But he questioned whether it
affects prosecutors abilty to handle th case professionally
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2320,10:19 00 Prosocutor inTrumpGeorgiacases ustinospoight veraf claims|APNews.

“Wheristhe nebetween an athiclapse orapolical misudgment and somethingthtind of ints this

office?heshed.
Outside ofanyeffect on thiscase,Wis, anelectedDemocrat,isp or reelection this year, and thiscoud
become acampaign issuedependingon how she ultimately responds.
“The tionfc st eckby Lawyer Ashleigh Merchant,whorepresentsformerTrumpcampaign stafer and
onetimeWriteHouseside MichaelRoman,allegesthatWiispaidWad agesums and benefitted
personallywhenh, in tun, used isearnings o take er toNapaValley, FloridaandtheCaribbean.Wadehas
er paid morethan$650,000ta ateof$250an oursinceis hiring, according orecordsMerchant tc.
Wadedidnot respond tan emaiseking comment.
“Thefudge hassched Fe 15hein onthematter andordered prosecutors tofle response byFeb.2.
Merchant has not provided proofofaromantic relationship.Shewrote thatflingsinWade'spending divorce
aresealed.Shealsocited“sources cose” othetwowithoutelaborating, She snowseking tounsealWade's
divorce case.TheAssociatedPressandothernewsorganizations haveasofledtounseal thecase.
Wade'swifehassubpoenaed Wil for adeposition nth divorcecase I a fling Thurscay sesking 10auash
hat
suena,a lawyer fo Wisaccused JoycelynWade of tryingto obstruct and interferewiththe
criminallectioninterference case
1a response led Friday.a avrfor Joycelyn Wadewrotethat NathanWadehas taken ips 0t0 San
FranciscoandNapaValley.Florida Belz,Panarma andAustralia, awellas akingCarbeancrisessince
fling fordivorce andthatWillswasaintendedtravel partnerforat east some ofthese ips a Indicated
by fights he purchased fr herto accompany him”
“The fling includescreit card statements thatshowWade aftrh hadbeen hireds special prosecutor—
purchased plane ticketsinOctaber2022forhimand Wils to travelto Miami andbought ticketsin Apri to
San Francisco inthernames.
JoycelynWade's fing sayssh isseeking to questionWl about “hr omantic affair withNathanWade,
Saying there“appearstobe noreasonableexplanation forthei travel apart fom romantic relationship”
WisspokespersonJetDiSantisdeclinedtocomment FridayonJoycelynWade's lng
Wisvigorously defendedWade'scredentials at a churchseviceonSundayandsuggested thequestioning.
of is ring was rooted n racism. Sh has thee special prosecutors workingonthelection case —a white
Woman, whitemanand a Black man — “theyonly attackedone;shesad, referringto Wade.
“The otherspecial prosecutors areJohn Flay, nationally recogrizedexpertonantackateering laws,and
Anna Cross, whoworked fortwodecadesas. prosecutor and handied numerousigh-proftcases.
Wilks cited Wade's 10 yearsas. municipalcourtjudg andmore than20years in private practiceButWade's
prosecutorial experience’ in.Heworked fr theCobbCounty solicitorgenerar offic,which handles
misdemeanorcase, for ess than ayearintheate 19805, county spokesperson said.
naDecember2010 later, thenAtorneyGeneral ThurbertBakerdesignated Wade aspecial assistant
attorneygeneraBaker eft officeth next month. Aspokespersonfor theatorney general office saidthey
“havent oundany informationtoconfi hat i. Wade has servedas a Special Assistant Attorney
General”
18 ntthefirst maWade'squafcatons have been challenged.
After isfrm 55.taza 0.2020by then-CobbCounty Sheriff NeilWarren toreviewoperations tthe local
18,8TVnewsstationsued 1s seri,lging the investigation was ashamdesigned topreventthe release.
of records aboutinmatedeaths.Thelawsuit idWadehad“noapparentexperince,qualifications,or
rainingin conductingjailhouse investigations

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2320,10:19 00 Prosocutor inTrumpGeorgiacases ustinospoight veraf claims|APNews.
Monthsinto th investigation,Wacetoldthe T statcn'sayer ha he hadno notes orothrwritten
documentationof iswork.saying he had anly “what'sgoingoninmymind bout it”
Recordsobtainedby the AP throughanopen records request indicate thatWade bledthesheriffs office
$44,000for80hours ofwork or $550an our in Noveriver andDecember2020. Thesheriffs office said it
had noreport other documents produced from tha investigation.
Wadewas lo veryinvolvedwith the specialgrand uyinvestigation that preceded Trump's indictment.
That panefoeperson fold the AP tht Wadegenerally ed thoseproceedings, describingimas “erymuch
a prosecutor” SinceTrumpand the therswer indicted, Wade hs beena near-constant presence nthe
courtroomduring hearings. But i'sgenerally other prosecutorswhoargue motions,cross-examinewitnesses
orwritebriefs.
“TheTrumpteam —incldingoutsideGeorgia isfollowing thefracas.Defense lawyers inthe fodral
classified documentscase have demanded anyrecordsrelated 102022 meotingsbetween WadeandWrite
House stat. Records showWade billed orwhat he describedas “travel tAthens: confwithWhit House
(Counsel in May 2022 There's another chargefo “Iteriewwith OC/White House”
reviewofvisitorlog at theWhiteHousedid not tr up anymeeting withWade.Threwasa conference
callin May2022betweenWisteamandtheWhit Hous counselsoffice to as whetherinvestigators
could interviewformerWhiteHouse offical, orwhether they wouldbbound byfederalrules that prohibit
nauthrized disclosures ofoficial information, according
toapersonfamilarwith thecall whospoke tothe
APonthecondition ofanonymitybecause theywere authorized to speskpubliclyabout tBu twasnt
immediatly learwhetherWadewas onthatcal.
1 notsurprisingtha Trump has sized ontheWillsandWade algatons
Trump took a simirtack duringthFBIsnvestgation nto Russiansection interference amidrevelations
thattheead gent i thatprobehadhadan extramarital lationshipwith wyerfo the bureau. Thetwo.
had rade ant-Trump texts, including messages clinghiman “ido” and "athsomme human” and
describing the prospect ofa Trumpvictory i2016asterrifying”
Trump used thetexts orytoundermine the investigation and o pain the FB 5polcalybissedagainst
im. Theagent, eterStrack.was laterfred, though a subsequent JusticeDepartment nspector general
report id notfindevidencethat investigative stepsduringthe Russia probe had been taken fo partisan or
political reasons.
RobertJames, whowaspreviously districtatorney inDeKalb County, Georgia, sad fWade andWills are
romanticallyinvolved, sanopticsproblem,buthdoesnsee anything nherenty improperabouta
relationship. EvenifWadespendsmoney on Wills, that's kelynot ansue unessthre’ evidence ofsome.
sortof conspiracytoprofit.hesaid.
Ihave nobee,uresssomething diferent thanwhatveheardcomes ou,thtFaniWills goingto be
disqualified from tiscase”Jamessaid.

Richerreported romBoston.AssociatedPress reporters Eric Tucker and Collen Long contributed from
Washington.
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At the very least, the revelations have raised questions about Ms. Wilis's mativation for hiring Mr Wade,alegal generalist who appears to
act asa sort of player-manager for the prosecution's mult-awyer team.
Areview of Mr. Wade's more than two decades as alawyerby The New York Times lso raises the issue of his qualifications, and whether
they were suficient justify is appointment 0: ob that has made him more than $650,000 in taxpayer dolars and catapulted i to the
topof on ofthe highest.profile criminal cases in the country.
‘Asa fixture on the legal and pliica scene in suburban Cobb County, Mr Wade spent years handing low-level criminal cass, first as a
prosecutor and then a judge. But heyearned totake on weightier work. And whi he landed some,defendingclients in a number of
serious felony cases, is dream of being elected asuperiorcour judge, Where hecould preside over biggercases,was repeatedly denied to
him by voters.
Mr. Wade's publicly available record as a laeyer shows scant evidence that he prosecuted major criminal cases, with no evidence tha he
as handled a major politcal corruption case or one involving the state's complicated racketeering statute knowna RICO, under which
allof the defendants in theTrumpcase have been charged.
“The realm of attorneys who handle Georgia RICO cases a small ne, and he is not someone who was n tht realm beforetheTrump
case” saidChrisTimmons, an Atlanta tial lawyerwho handed white-collar cases for more than 15years as a prosecutor
Several former Georgia prosecutors say that Mr. Wade'sfee, of$250per hour, did not seem excessive. But some ofthem also questioned
whether he had thequalifications to lead such ahigh-stakescase.
“I can' judge on whether it’a legitimate hire, but I thinki's legitimate question to ask why this particular lawyer was hired said
Danny Porte, the former longtime district attorney in Guinnet County and a Republican.
Speaking recently ata historically Black church in Atlanta, Ms. Wills said that the question raised about her hiring of Mr. Wade were
Facst. She praised Mr. Wade's “impeccable credentials” and said they were being questioned because both she and Mi Wade were Black.
MirWadecould not be reached forcomment for this story. But his defenders pint 10 the measurable successes the prosecution team hs
notchedso far under his stewardship. Prosecutors have obtained four guity pleas from the original cast of 19 co-defendants, and beaten
back,sofa, an effort to havethecase moved (0 the federal court system, which would offer some advantages to the defendants.
GeraldA. Griggs, alawyer and the president ofthe state NAACP. who knows both Mz Wade and Ms. Wiis personally, noted that asa
defense lawyer, Mr. Wade brings a valuable perspective 0.2 team that includes a number ofveteran prosecutors.
A defense lawyer “can show you where the holes are to make sure your case is strong” he said
From traffic tickets to felonies

tps nnyimoscom202410120usnathanvade-tumpprosecutorial 28
12320, 1.08A HowAlgaionsAgainstNathanWade and Fani Wilis Complicated Trump Georgia Case - The Now York Tinos

Me.Wade'splyaval cond3 lawyer smsscan evidence ha eprose

mr cml ass. PpabyEo ete
Mi. Wade, according(0 anoldjob application, was born in Houston, studiedatTexas State University, then went on to attend John
Marshall Law School inAtlanta. He once tldanAtlanta-area magazine, Cobb in Focus, tha his career path was influenced by his father, a
‘Vietnam veteran, andbyearly involvement in church activites that sparked an interest in public speaking.
By the late 1990s, Mr. Wade was in Cobb County, where he spent some time as an assistant solicitor,aprosecutingjob that handles traffic
cases and minor crimes. He moved to private practice to focus on civil matters but tod the magazine that hecontinued todo some.
prosecution workfo local municipalities.
Mi. Wade’ civil cases have ranged from divorces o paternitymatters,child support, car accidents, smal claims and personal injury
issues.Thecriminalcases he handled as defense lawyer included clientscharged with aggravated assault and battery, armed robbery,
rape, cocaine trafficking and financial fraud.
Ron Coleman, a retired Atlanta lawyer, sad he faced Mr. Wade in 2016 ase in which Mr. Wades client claimed that she found glass in her
foodatachain restaurant. Asettlement was reached in mediation, and one ofthe things that Mr. Coleman recalled was that Mr.Wadewas
notasaggressive assome other lawyers he has worked against n such cases
“I've dealt with lotof guys who would destroy you f theysayan opening, but hedidn't strike me as having that ind of focus or
intensity? he said.
Ina 2021 slip and allcase in which one of Mr.Wade'sclientswas suing anotherrestaurant company; Rabert Jenkins, a lawyer orthe
defendant, aid he found Mr. Wade to be both assertive and skilled.
“He was forceful,butcool and composed.” hesaid. “And when he asks question number one, he knows what question number three is
going tobe. He seemed two steps ahead”

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Me. Wade ha alendy made isos in 201, 5 he rst Blac an 0beappointed 10.dgesipin he of rita, Ga Asan
asocintejudge or the Marta Moricipl Cort, dealt ithsmallaor ters i trafic op.Hest is ighton mre.
lcaly it seemed a though thre mightbe pth Cob County’ poplin base nthe 19608 and 570 ith an fuof whitecy
elles fel of negatingAnts. ne 190 was preset by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who 1994ld a tion
Conservativeresurgence known atheRepublican Revolution,
But by th 2000, demographic change was fot a racial ues shied andpeopleofall Kinds ough thesame suburban AS
Sinedvesdets, Cob County became rsa terard with Black eklnt roving oss 30 perentf he population i
202 fomjust unde 10 percent in 1900
Fueyears,Ms Wadewas regular at county Republic reads meetings, nd heserved 0 im a 3 delegate 1 the county
coment, nso Shephert,whohired he Cob CountyRepublicanFrys hetie,
Shepherd sid he once helped distribute yard sgns for Mi: Wadeduringan of is merous aed ds ob electedtoahigher
Jodeci, ad called Him-chisatc energetic” amor on the Republican side on aw enforcement sues”
102016 curing oe ofFS unsucestlaep3 un o CoB County Spero ot dg, hws sporbyASHgh Merchant—
he lawyer wh ld the motion 1 manta. Roma's bl ht sek do ave him removed rom Trpcas, The mation
Questions Wi Wade quaiadons, Bun Facebok postin he midst ofHod ae sh psd in os ates est.
“Nathan has pracicedin ery ara thea hat appears bore the Spero Court bench? sh wot, (She recendy expired her
Changeofhear by sayin hit Mi deseme ike bei chie oe 1a is opponent at he ie)
Ackoin 0th CoCountyBoslions an Regist, Me. Wade ra fours fo superior court ge between 2008 and
2016 They were nonpartisan aces He los seh me.
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Mi Wade found himself embrofled in Cobb County politic in a diferent way in 2020, when hewasaccused ina lawsuit Fld by
alocal NBC
fate of heading an inestgtion of the countyil hat,according othe ut, was in acta ruseby the longtime her at te time, Neil
Warrn,a Republican, keep reporters from cessing documents abouta String ofhouse deaths,
No estgative report ver cam public olght. Th Cob County Shes Office sd ha ho such prt ns les and was“unable”
to comment n any work Mr Wade might have donc on hei.
Mi Waren id no respond to numerous calls an ext secking comment. Mi: Wade asodeclined to answer questions onthe mater But
inan eaecout hearin, he Sid is inquiry hd not ben memorialized in documents. Bae obviously mybrainchild,what's going on
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When Ms. Wills won ection in 2020, she instilled High hopes or a esh sar at the Fulton County DistrictAtomey's Ofc, whic i he
Kagest such fice in Georgia and dle mst of thecriminal cass in Anta. He predecessor, aulL Howard J, who had boc n
lice or mre han 20years, wasburdened with recent ling agains im om th tate tics commision, sexualBarasment
Complain ofwhich he waster found no iy) and questions, raised by Ms. Will, about whether he had played poles nis handing
of ahghsprot pole shooting
Ms. Will ho had been one ofMi: Howard's courtroom stars, handy defeated hi in Democratic primary runoff in Aug 2020. In
heavily Democratic Fulton County,thre was io Republica opponent o the genera election balla, Shwould become th rst woman0
had job.
“Vill we made hrstoryshe said in er victory speech. “You hve my word, during my tenure a district attorney in Futon County we
Veillbeabeaconfor sic and tics in Georgia and across the mation
She took office in January 2021, The next moni,sh opened the criminal investigation nto MrTrumpand is alles and began building
tea 0 prosecute the case. Some of thr,ike th lawyers Dona Wakeford and DayshaYoung,were experienced prosecutorswho had
lft th fice but end a flim employees ater Ms. Will's lection
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12320, 1.08A HowAlgatonsAgainstNathanWade and Fani Wilis Complicated Trump Georgia Case - The Now York Tinos
She also contracted for outside expertise bringing in John Floyd, alawyerwidely considered Georgiapremier expert on racketeering
law. ShehiredAnna Green Cross, a former prosecutor with extensive experience tryingmurdercases who has beena key player for the
DASoffice n federal court, wheresomeco-defendants intheTrumpcase have been arguing, so far unsuccessfully, 1o have the case
moved.
Ms. Willis said she also needed a special prosecutorto lead the growing team,and turned to Mr Wade t help her find one.
“The truth i, and I mean tnnoway disrespectful to M. Wade, he was nit my frst choiceasspecial counsel? she said in an interview in
202.
‘Ste said she had told anumberofmoreexperienced or well-knownLawyers aboutthe job firs. But they turnedherdown. Atleast one of
hem was concerned that tying Mr. Trump could open the door to personal security threats. Eventually, shesaid, she and otheradvisers
turned 10 Mr. Wadeand encouraged him 0take the position.
Ms. Willis recalled that Mr:Wadesaid, “Well, you know, [ve spent a ite time as prosecutor, but really moreofmy career has been asa
defenseatiorey”
‘She replied: “Wel I've been adefense attorney and a prosecutor, too. What I need is a tia lawyer”
From that point, Ms. Willis recalled, “it was aconvincing process”oget Mr. Wade 0 ign up.“But he wasntafraid shesaid “And 1
needed someone not afraid”
Mr. Wade'sfirstday under contract with thedistrict attorney's office was Nov. 1, 2021. Hewas tobe paid an hourly rate of $250 pe hour,
the same rate as Ms. Cross. Records show Mr. Floyd hascharged between $150 and $200 per hour:
‘County records posted online also show that Me Wade's law partner, Christopher A.Campbel, has been paid $126,070 by thedistrict
attorney's office since June 2021 and tha his former lawpartner,Terrence Bradley, was paid atleast $74,480 since Mayof that year.
Jef Disantis, a spokesman for Ms. Willis’ office said that the paymentsto Mr. Campbell and Mr. Bradley were fo services unrelated 0
theTrump case, includingmakingcourt appearances incases on behalf ofthe DA's office when i was short-staffed and removing.
documents in potential public corruption cases that membersofthe D.A’S office are not allowed to see.

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Another ho lashedwith Ms. Wadewas Brian McEvoy, a lawyer fo Gov. Brian P Kempf Georgia, whom MiTrumphad elehoned
Ite in 2020 fo help in vermin Joseph. iden Jwi sate. 11.2022 motion, Me McEvoy deserioed abreakdown in
commanabeeen imand pesetor hy used he ams Aen eriowofthe geen
Mc ME a Mr: Wade's demand hat Mi. Ke ee ith prosecutors within aspec tm frame came ashrestening”
WM. Wils weighed in wih an mal Ms. McEvoy, ceusing Himof “ude andisparaging conduct toward her sala as “beneath an
ffcer ofth court”
One he most awkward moments Mi Wade hs spent nthe speci came when numberof co-defendants in he Trump casecomplied
10th reg de(to had eee ategevrated alr oma ha wa OE odor ups.
Ourtavyers ave an abundanceofexperince handing cases nh sa and oa courts ofMetroAdana?thers state,
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12320, 1.08A HowAllgaiansAgainstNathanWadeand Fani Wits Complicated TrumpGeorgiaCase -TheNewYork Times
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EXHIBIT B
 This article was published more than 1 year ago

Democracy Dies in Darkness

GOP fake electors ‘targets’ in Georgia election fraud inquiry

At least a dozen of the GOP electors who falsely certified Trump as the victor of the
2020 election in Georgia are now subjects of criminal investigation

By Matthew Brown

July 19, 2022 at 7:52 p.m. EDT

ATLANTA — Georgia prosecutors investigating potential criminal interference in the 2020 presidential election by
Donald Trump and his allies have notified several Republicans who were part of a fake electors scheme that they are
“targets” of the probe and could face charges, according to a court document filed Tuesday.

The information in the filing provides the latest insight into the fast moving and expanding investigation that’s led
by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, who requested the convening of a special grand jury earlier this
year. Part of the investigation now centers on the 16 Republicans who gathered at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14,
2020, as part of an attempt to falsely certify the state’s electoral college votes for former president Donald Trump
even though Joe Biden won the state.

The group included Georgia Republican Party Chair David J. Shafer, candidate for lieutenant governor Burt Jones,
county-level GOP officials, a former state lawmaker and local conservative activists.

Lawyers for 11 of those 16 Republicans, including Shafer, said in a new court filing that their clients received grand-
jury subpoenas on June 1, then were notified in late June that they were considered targets of the investigation
instead of witnesses. They argue in the filing that the subpoenas are “unreasonable and oppressive” and the electors
will invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination after advice from legal counsel. They deemed the
new designation “a publicity stunt.”

In the filing, the electors alleged they were unaware of the broader legal effort by Trump’s legal team, including
Rudolph W. Giuliani and John Eastman, to use the slate of “alternate electors” to help contest the 2020 presidential
election results. They further contend that prosecutors’ investigation is “political interference” resulting from “local
passion and prejudice.”
This defense echoes a November 2020 legal memo from Trump legal counsel Kenneth Chesebro, who the Georgia
special grand jury has also subpoenaed, that advances an unorthodox legal theory hinging on the 1960 presidential
election in Hawaii when the state briefly created two alternate slates of electors while the state conducted a recount.

Jones, a state senator, received a letter informing him that he was also a target of the investigation, according to a
person familiar with the documents. Yahoo News first reported that Jones and two other Republicans had received
these letters.

A “target” letter is often the final step a local or federal prosecutor will take to inform an individual they are likely to
be indicted before formal charges are brought. Jones has filed a motion to disqualify Willis from presiding over the
case because she co-sponsored a fundraising event for Jones’s Democratic rival in the lieutenant governors race,
Charlie Bailey.

In response to Jones’s motion, the district attorney’s office wrote to the court that Willis shouldn’t be disqualified
because Jones “has been treated identically” to the other false electors and that none of the district attorney’s
activities have “been outside the character as an officer of the law specially charged to oversee the special purpose
grand jury’s investigation.”

Brandon Beach, a state senator, was also served a “target” letter last week for what prosecutors are saying was his
role in facilitating communication between the fake electors and the Trump campaign, according to a person
familiar with the documents. Internal communications from the campaign obtained by The Post reveal that staffers
knew the effort was legally baseless and thus instructed electors to be discreet in their activities at the Georgia
Capitol.

The Fulton County special grand jury began meeting in June and has identified more than 100 people of interest.
The body has already heard testimony from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his staff, Georgia
Attorney General Christopher M. Carr (R), state lawmakers and local election workers. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R)
is slated to supply a sworn written statement to the special grand jury next week.

In July, grand jurors issued material witness subpoenas for several members of Trump’s legal team, including
Chesebro, Eastman, Giuliani, as well as lawyers Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell and the conservative commentator Jacki
Pick Deason.

Two members of Congress and close Trump allies have also been subpoenaed in the investigation. Rep. Jody Hice
(R-Ga.) challenged the subpoena, contesting that federal laws allowed him to move any requests for testimony to
federal court.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is of interest to the committee for phone calls he made to Raffensperger about
Georgia’s election system, cited the Speech and Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution as shielding him from
subpoenas. On Tuesday, Graham agreed to move any future challenges to the grand jury’s subpoena to state and
federal courts in Georgia.
2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

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Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton

County special grand jury probe
July 19, 2022 4:27 PM
Updated: July 20, 2022 4:59 PM
By: Stephen Fowler

https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/07/19/fake-gop-electors-targeted-in-fulton-county-special-grand-jury-probe 1/9
2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is leading an investigation into attempts to
overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

Credit: John Bazemore | AP

Listen
00:44

The 16 Republicans who submitted false documents claiming to be official Georgia electors
and that Donald Trump won the state's election have been notified they could be
prosecuted for their actions.

In a court filing Tuesday, 11 of the fake GOP electors, including party chairman David
Shafer, filed a motion seeking to halt future testimony, have the Fulton County District

https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/07/19/fake-gop-electors-targeted-in-fulton-county-special-grand-jury-probe 2/9
2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Attorney Fani Willis removed from prosecuting them and that any report be held under
embargo or seal until after the midterm elections.

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2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Document 1 of 36 94%

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2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

The Republicans write in their motion that originally the electors were considered
witnesses in the ongoing probe of potential crimes committed in the failed effort to
overturn the 2020 election, but on June 28 prosecutors notified them that "as our
investigation has matured and new evidence has come to light" that they were now targets
of the election probe.

State Sen. Burt Jones, the party's nominee for lieutenant governor and also a fake elector,
is apparently a target of the investigation as well. Jones has also filed a motion to have
Willis disqualified as the prosecutor. A judge has scheduled a hearing on that motion for
Thursday.

Jones argues that Willis, a Democrat, is pursuing an investigation against him to benefit
his opponent, Charlie Bailey, in the midterm election. Willis recently held a fundraiser for
Bailey.

Willis wrote in response that Jones was not singled out based on his campaign and that
she should not be removed from the investigation.

"Each of the sixteen persons who signed the unofficial Elector Certificate ultimately
submitted to the National Archives received similar target letter, alerting that person both
that his testimony was required by the special purpose grand jury and that he was target of
the investigation," Willis wrote.

The 11 electors mentioned in Tuesday's filing include Mark Amick, Joseph Brannan, Brad
Carver, Vikki Consiglio, John Downey, Carolyn Fish, Kay Godwin, Cathy Latham, Shafer,
Shawn Still and CB Yadav. James "Ken" Carroll, David Hanna, Mark Hennessy, Daryl
Moody are also targets of the probe, per Willis.

During and after the Dec. 14 meeting where the Republicans signed a false certificate
claiming to be the "duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President,"
Shafer argued that they were simply preserving their options if a lawsuit overturned the
results.

In the court filing, attorneys for the fake electors also claim that their false documents
were legally allowed, blamed the courts for not rectifying lawsuits before the Electoral

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2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

College met and said that states have no jurisdiction to determine which elector slates are
"'fake' or valid."

A footnote in the filing claims that "no Georgia court ever held an evidentiary hearing or
ruled on the merits" of the Trump v. Raffensperger suit that was pending. The day before
the meeting where the false paperwork was signed, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected an
appeal to have the case heard, writing that they did not have jurisdiction.

The suit was eventually dropped, along with other challenges by the Trump campaign.

Tuesday's filing is the latest evidence that the Fulton County special grand jury probe is
zeroing in on potential crimes committed in the efforts to subvert Georgia's thrice-counted
election results.

In recent weeks, the wide-ranging probe has also subpoenaed South Carolina U.S. Sen.
Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani and others in Trump's inner circle in relation to a series of
unofficial legislative hearings during which lawmakers were urged to select Republican
electors based on false claims of voter fraud.

Tags: Election 2020 Georgia Politics Public Policy Georgia Atlanta Macon
Savannah Election 2022 2022 elections

About the author

STEPHEN FOWLER
POLITICAL REPORTER

Stephen Fowler is an award-winning reporter for GPB News covering state and local
politics and host of the Battleground: Ballot Box podcast.

https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/07/19/fake-gop-electors-targeted-in-fulton-county-special-grand-jury-probe 6/9
2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

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2/4/24, 11:20 PM Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury probe | Georgia Public Broadcasting

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2/4/24, 11:21 PM Georgia fake electors may face charges in election probe | AP News

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Georgia fake electors may face charges in election

probe

FILE - Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a photo in her office in Atlanta, Jan. 4, 2022. Willis last year opened a criminal
investigation “into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.” A special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in
May at her request. A group of Georgia Republicans who have been informed that they are at risk of being indicted in an investigation into whether former
President Donald Trump and others illegally interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia are fighting subpoenas to testify before the special grand jury. (AP
Photo/Ben Gray, File) Read More

BY KATE BRUMBACK
Published 8:02 PM EST, July 19, 2022

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor who’s investigating whether former President Donald
Trump and others illegally interfered in the 2020 general election in the state has informed 16
Republicans who served as fake electors that they could face criminal charges.

They all signed a certificate declaring falsely that then-President Trump had won the 2020
presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors
even though Joe Biden had won the state and a slate of Democratic electors was certified.
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2/4/24, 11:21 PM Georgia fake electors may face charges in election probe | AP News

Eleven of them filed a motion Tuesday to quash their subpoenas, calling them “unreasonable
and oppressive.”

Also Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, agreed to file any
challenges to a subpoena in the investigation in either state superior court or federal court in
Georgia, according to a court filing. He had previously filed a motion in federal court in South
Carolina trying to stop any subpoena from being issued to him there on behalf of the
prosecutor in Georgia.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last year opened a criminal investigation “into
attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.” A special grand
jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request. In court filings earlier this month,
she alleged “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of
the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”

Willis’ office declined to comment Tuesday on the motion to quash the subpoenas.
A lawyer for Willis’s office said in a court filing Tuesday that each of the 16 people who signed
the false elector certificate has received a letter saying they are targets of the investigation and
that their testimony before the special grand jury is required.

In the motion to quash the subpoenas, lawyers for 11 of the fake electors said that from mid-
April through the end of June, Willis’s office had told them that they were considered
witnesses, not subjects or targets of the investigation. For that reason, they had agreed to
voluntary interviews with the investigative team, the motion says. Georgia Republican Party
Chairman David Shafer and another of the fake electors appeared for interviews in late April.

On June 1, grand jury subpoenas were sent to all 11 of those fake electors. And on June 28, the
district attorney’s office told their lawyers for the first time that their clients were considered
targets, rather than witnesses, the motion says.

On Dec. 14, 2020, when Georgia’s official Democratic electors met to certify the state’s
electoral votes for Biden, the fake Republican electors also met to certify a slate of electoral
votes for Trump. They did that because there was a lawsuit challenging the election results
pending at the time, and if a judge found that Trump had actually won their electoral slate
would become valid, the motion says.

The district attorney’s office knew all that and properly labeled them witnesses, prompting
them to agree to voluntary cooperation, the motion says.

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2/4/24, 11:21 PM Georgia fake electors may face charges in election probe | AP News

“The abrupt, unsupportable, and public elevation of all eleven nominee electors’ status
wrongfully converted them from witnesses who were cooperating voluntarily and prepared to
testify in the Grand Jury to persecuted targets of it,” the motion says. As a result, their lawyers
advised them to invoke their federal and state rights protecting them against self-
incrimination, and they “reluctantly” accepted that advice, the motion says.

Their lawyers assert that the change in status from witnesses to targets was based on “an
improper desire to force them to publicly invoke their rights as, at best, a publicity stunt.”
Therefore, they should be excused from appearing before the special grand jury, the motion
says.

The motion asks Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the
special grand jury to excuse the 11 electors from appearing before the panel. It also asks him to
look into Willis’ actions “indicating the improper politicization of this investigatory process.”

And it asks him to grant a motion filed Friday by state Sen. Burt Jones seeking to remove Willis
and her office from the investigation. Jones, who’s the Republican nominee for lieutenant
governor, alleged that the investigation is politically motivated because Willis is an active
supporter of his Democratic opponent. McBurney on Tuesday set a Thursday hearing on that
motion.

Willis’s office has said Jones’ claims are without merit and a lawyer representing the office
wrote in a filing Tuesday that Jones has identified no actions that show political motivation.

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors' in 2020 election probe - ABC News

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Election Dashboard State Results Primary Schedule Entrance/Exit

Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors'

in 2020 election probe
Prosecutors said "matured and new evidence came to light."

By Olivia Rubin
July 20, 2022, 2:44 PM

1:24

In this May 2, 2022, file photo, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, ce... Show More
Ben Gray/AP, FILE

The Georgia district attorney probing former President Donald Trump and
his allies' efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in
the state has notified 16 people identified as "fake electors" that they have
been targeted in the ongoing criminal investigation, prosecutors revealed in
court documents filed on Tuesday.
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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors' in 2020 election probe - ABC News

In this Dec. 14, 2020, file photo, an alternate slate of electors nominated by the Repu... Show more
Ben Gray/AP, FILE

Those 16 individuals, who allegedly participated in a scheme to overturn the

state's election results, received letters "alerting that person both that [their]
testimony was required by the special purpose grand jury and that [they
were] target of the investigation" the filing said.

MORE: Trump’s Georgia failures highlight GOP’s Jan. 6 dilemma:

The Note

The Fulton County district attorney has been probing the effort to overturn
the 2020 election results since last February, including the so-called "fake
elector" plan -- which has gained increased scrutiny and come under focus in
other investigations around the country probing efforts to overturn the 2020
election around the country.

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors' in 2020 election probe - ABC News

The target notification came after the Georgia investigation "matured and
new evidence came to light," prosecutors said, according to a separate filing
by a defense attorney for 11 of the 16 individuals.

The attorney said the purported electors "did not and could not have had any
involvement in or knowledge of" the alleged larger scheme by former
President Trump's allies to put for the alternate slate of electors to overturn
the election.

In this Dec. 14, 2020, file photo, Georgia Democratic Electors cast their Electoral Col... Show more
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images, FILE

He said in the filing that the actions of the "nominee electors" were "proper,
and even necessary."

The Jan. 6 committee has described the plan, which appeared to have
multiple iterations, as being set up by the Trump campaign in multiple
swing states to assemble "groups of individuals in key battleground states
and got them to call themselves electors, created phony certificates
associated with these fake electors and then transmitted these certificates to

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors' in 2020 election probe - ABC News

Washington, and to the Congress, to be counted during the joint session of

Congress on January 6th."

MORE: Bannon trial live updates: Jan. 6 staffer says panel

'rejected the basis' for Bannon's privilege claim

The Department of Justice is also examining the issue of fake electors as part
of its own separate investigation, sources tell ABC News. Last month, DOJ
subpoenaed Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer for information related to
the effort to send a fraudulent slate of electors to Congress, according to
sources familiar with the matter.

A lawyer representing Shafer declined to comment at the time.

Shafer sat for a deposition with the Jan. 6 committee as well, and his
transcript is among those DOJ wants the committee to turn over.

In this May 2, 2022, file photo, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, center, sits... Show more

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors' in 2020 election probe - ABC News
Ben Gray/AP, FILE

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the Jan. 6

committee that Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, his associates and "several"
lawmakers discussed the plan around Thanksgiving -- and that she heard the
White House counsel office say it was potentially illegal.

Giuliani has repeatedly downplayed his involvement with the Jan. 6 riot.

"My only involvement on January 6th was being invited to speak there," he
said in a radio appearance last month in response to Hutchinson's testimony.
"I had nothing else to do with it."

ABC News' Pierre Thomas, Katherine Faulders and Ben Siegel contributed to
this report.

Related Topics
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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

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Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers

for 'fake' Trump electors in
Fulton County DA probe

MICHAEL ISIKOFF
Updated

The Georgia Republican Party is bankrolling the legal defense of most of the so-
called fake electors in the state as part of a controversial arrangement that
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charges in a new court filing is “rife
with serious ethical problems” and “actual conflicts of interest.”
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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

A Yahoo News review of campaign finance filings shows that the Georgia
Republican Party paid $35,419 last July to two lawyers who are representing 11 of
16 party operatives and activists who declared themselves on Dec. 14, 2020, “the
duly elected and qualified” electors from the state pledged to Donald Trump
despite the fact that Joe Biden had won the popular vote there.

Fani Willis, district attorney of Fulton County, Ga. (Ben Gray/AP) (AP)

That move, which was memorialized in a false certificate the electors sent that
day to the Senate and the National Archives, has become a central focus of
Willis’s probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. But
Willis, an elected Democrat, substantially escalated the legal battle over the issue
this week when she moved to disqualify the two lawyers being paid by the state
GOP. She argued that their representation of the 11 electors resulted in ethical
conflicts given the potentially divergent interests between some of those electors
and top party officials, including state party chairman David Shafer, who
organized the Dec. 14 meeting and arranged for it to take place behind closed
doors at the state Capitol. (The court filing was first reported by CNN.)

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

David Shafer, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) (REUTERS)

A spokesman for the Georgia Republican Party did not respond to a request for
comment. One of the lawyers Willis is seeking to disqualify, Holly Pierson, a
former federal prosecutor, said in an emailed statement to Yahoo News that
claims of any ethical impropriety by her and her co-counsel in the case, Kimberly
Debrow, were “false and defamatory.”

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

“Both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Georgia Supreme Court recognize that
there is no actual or potential conflict in representing multiple individuals united
in their innocence whose defenses against false allegations of wrongdoing are
aligned,” Pierson wrote. She also said she and Debrow have “thoroughly complied
with our ethical obligations,” including getting informed-consent waivers from
their clients.

The new court filing underscores the political minefield that surrounds Willis’s
high-profile probe, which many legal observers say continues to represent the
most imminent threat of criminal prosecution for the former president. Willis
herself has already been disqualified from participating in one part of her case:
an investigation into one of the alternative electors who met at the state Capitol
that day, Burt Jones, the current Republican Party candidate for lieutenant
governor, because the district attorney previously participated in a fundraiser for
Jones’s Democratic opponent, Charles Bailey.

But the filing also highlights an arrangement that Willis has suggested is
thwarting her efforts to uncover the truth about the fake elector meeting. With
the same two lawyers representing 11 electors, it effectively prevents her
prosecutors from reaching cooperation agreements with marginal participants
who could then provide testimony that might implicate her top targets, including
party chairman Shafer.

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

Fulton County Superior Court. (Megan Varner/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Defense lawyers “should be doing whatever is in the best interest” of their clients
and “in the criminal law, sometimes that’s a plea, right? Sometimes I’m going to
take this immunity agreement — and I’m going to get you the best deal,” Willis
said in an interview with Yahoo News before her Monday filing to disqualify
Pierson and Debrow. She emphasized in the interview that she was not talking
specifically about the two Georgia defense lawyers. But she added: “You cannot
effectively represent — forget 11 — you cannot effectively represent two people
doing that. That, to me, puts everything in jeopardy, and it’s a bad idea.”

The potential problem has also been flagged by Robert McBurney, the chief judge
in Fulton County Superior Court who will rule on Willis’s motion. After Pierson
and Debrow filed their own motions in July to disqualify Willis from the whole
investigation (because of her role in the Bailey fundraiser), McBurney denied
their claims. And in a little-noticed passage, he appeared to reference the
potential conflict issue that has now been raised by Willis, writing that the 11
electors had “divergent roles in post-election activities” and had “fundamentally
different postures in the District Attorney’s investigation.”

Clark Cunningham, a professor of law and ethics at Georgia State University, said
it was “entirely appropriate” for Willis to file her motion. He noted that Shafer’s
role in particular posed a “significant conflict of interest” for the two defense
lawyers given that the state party chair “seems to be facing much greater criminal
liability [than the others], so it may be very much in the Georgia Republican
Party’s interest to make sure none of them cooperate with the DA.”

The so-called fake elector scheme was an integral part of the legal strategy
devised by one of Trump’s lawyers, John Eastman, to block Biden from taking
office. The idea was to have alternate GOP electors in seven swing states that
Biden won declare themselves the real electors in those states, initially as a
means of preserving Trump’s ability to overturn the election results in the event
that any of his multiple challenges in court were successful.

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

Attorney John Eastman, with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, speaks against the certification of the 2020
presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) (REUTERS)

After those challenges repeatedly failed, the fake elector meetings were used by
Eastman to argue that Vice President Mike Pence could reject the legitimate
Biden electors when Congress was called on to certify the election results on Jan.
6, 2021, because there was a presumed dispute over which set of electors was
real.

In their own motions to quash subpoenas issued to their clients, Pierson and
Debrow argued in a court filing that the Dec. 14 fake elector meeting was “public
and transparent.” To back that up, they noted that Shafer announced the
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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

meeting in social media postings and during media interviews that same day,
emphasizing that the session was convened only to “preserve” Trump’s rights
should his legal challenge to the Georgia results succeed.

But unlike the certificates from two other states where fake elector meetings
were held, the Georgia statement to the National Archives and the Senate made
no mention of the idea that the declaration by the electors that they were "duly
elected and qualified" was contingent on the success of Trump's legal challenges.

In addition, Willis’s prosecutors have gathered substantial evidence that Shafer

didn't publicly reveal the Dec. 14 meeting, which was held in Room 216 of the
state Capitol, until reporters learned about it that day and threatened to expose
it. In his book, “Flipped: How Georgia Turned Purple and Broke the Monopoly on
Republican Power,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein wrote
that he was falsely told when he tried to attend that it was an “education
meeting.”

George Chidi, an Atlanta-based independent journalist, told Yahoo News that he

testified before Willis’s special grand jury investigating the case in July about how
he got tipped off to the secret meeting and that when he tried to attend it, he too
was told it was an “education meeting” and was thrown out. “A guy got up and
walked me out the door,” he said, adding that “they posted a guy out front” to
keep others out.

Yahoo News has confirmed that, in a text message before the meeting, Shafer
alerted participants: “Tell them to go to Room 216 to avoid drawing attention to
what we are doing.”

Show comments

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

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2/4/24, 11:22 PM Georgia GOP bankrolls lawyers for 'fake' Trump electors in Fulton County DA probe [Video]

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2/4/24, 11:23 PM Judge: GOP head can't share lawyers with other fake electors | AP News

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Judge: GOP head can’t share lawyers with other fake

electors

FILE - David Shafer, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, arrives before Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a “Save the Majority” rally, Thursday,
Dec. 10, 2020 in Augusta, Ga. A judge says Shafer can’t share lawyers with 10 other fake electors in matters related to a special grand jury probing possible
illegal meddling in the 2020 election. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File) Read More

BY KATE BRUMBACK
Published 4:41 PM EST, November 30, 2022

ATLANTA (AP) — The chairman of the Georgia Republican Party cannot share lawyers with 10
other fake electors in matters related to a special grand jury investigation into possible illegal
meddling in the 2020 election in the state, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The special grand jury was seated earlier this year to aid the investigation by Fulton County
District Attorney Fani Willis into whether Republican former President Donald Trump and
others committed crimes through their efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to
Democrat Joe Biden.
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2/4/24, 11:23 PM Judge: GOP head can't share lawyers with other fake electors | AP News

Willis has made clear that she is interested in the actions of 16 Republicans who signed a
certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won and also declaring themselves the state’s “duly
elected and qualified” electors. Willis has said in a court filing that she notified lawyers for
those 16 people that they are targets of her investigation, meaning they could face criminal
charges.

Eleven of those fake electors, including Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, are
represented by two lawyers paid by the party, Holly Pierson and Kimberly Debrow. Willis’ team
in October filed a motion seeking to disqualify the two from representing all of those clients,
citing a conflict of interest.

They argued that, if Pierson and Debrow continue to represent any of the 11, “there is a serious
possibility of future ethical problems concerning confidentiality of information obtained in the
course of their representation thus far.”
Pierson and Debrow countered that none of their clients have committed any crimes or know
of any crimes committed by the others. The district attorney’s “assumption that the jointly
represented nominee electors can ‘flip’ on each other or otherwise provide incriminating
information as to any other jointly represented elector is simply inaccurate, as well as legally
insufficient,” they argued.

They also noted their clients have signed waivers attesting that they understand the
implications of joint representation.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury,
wrote in his order Wednesday that “the best waiver in the world cannot fix a non-waivable
conflict” but said he finds “very few such conflicts” at this phase of the investigation.

Special grand juries in Georgia can gather evidence and compel testimony but cannot indict.
Instead, they can recommend further action, including criminal charges. It is ultimately up to
the district attorney whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.

McBurney noted that if charges are brought against any of the fake electors, one of them could
be called to testify against another at trial. At that point, the judge noted, Pierson and Debrow
likely could not represent either one.

“But that is a remote and hypothetical scenario that does not now exist,” McBurney wrote.

Shafer, however, is an exception because of his role in establishing and convening the slate of
fake electors, his “communications with other key players” in the investigation and “his role in

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2/4/24, 11:23 PM Judge: GOP head can't share lawyers with other fake electors | AP News

other post-election efforts to call into question the validity” of Georgia’s election results,
McBurney wrote.

This “imbalance in exposure” to the investigation “makes it impractical and arguably unethical”
for Pierson and Debrow to continue to represent all 11 of their clients, McBurney wrote. The
pair of lawyers may represent Shafer or the other 10, but not both, he concluded.

Pierson and Debrow said in a statement that they disagree with McBurney’s conclusion that
Shafer is differently situated.

He didn’t select replacement electors or have any “legally material” communications with other
key players, they argued. The only action he took in terms of questioning the validity of the
election outcome was to use legal channels to file a lawsuit contesting the election, the
statement said.

“The proper inquiry under Georgia law for joint representation is not whether the jointly
represented individuals are identically factually situated but, instead, whether they are aligned
in their defenses,” the statement said. “Here, the undisputed evidence is that all eleven electors
are so aligned, and none should be deprived of their counsel of choice.”

A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment on McBurney’s ruling.

Also Wednesday, Sarasota County Circuit Judge Charles Roberts in Florida ruled during a video
hearing that Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who served briefly as national security
adviser under Trump, must appear before the special grand jury on Dec. 8. Flynn’s lawyers had
argued his appeal of Roberts’ earlier ruling ordering him to testify should be allowed to play out
first.

“The state of Georgia does have a compelling interest in having Mr. Flynn testify as soon as
possible,” Roberts said. Because Flynn lives outside Georgia, Willis’ team had to get a judge
where he lives to order him to appear.

Flynn’s attorneys said he will appeal this latest order as well, with lawyer Jason Greaves saying
it is “conflicting with his right to have his appeal heard.”

Roberts refused to stay his order and said “the likelihood of success on appeal is slim.”

___
Associated Press writer Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Fla. contributed reporting.
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2/4/24, 11:23 PM Judge: GOP head can't share lawyers with other fake electors | AP News

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 Democracy Dies in Darkness

Georgia DA seeks to disqualify attorney for ‘fake electors’ in

Trump investigation
By Holly Bailey

Updated April 18, 2023 at 4:29 p.m. EDT | Published April 18, 2023 at 3:27 p.m. EDT

ATLANTA — An Atlanta-area district attorney investigating whether former president Donald Trump and his allies
broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia asked a judge to disqualify an
attorney representing some of the Republican “fake electors” who signed certificates falsely stating Trump had won
the election in Georgia, claiming the attorney did not tell her clients they had been offered immunity deals in the
case.

In a court motion filed Tuesday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) asked for attorney Kimberly
Bourroughs Debrow, who represents 10 of the alternate Republican electors, to be removed from “any further
participation” in the case. Prosecutors claim Debrow committed an ethical breach by representing so many clients
simultaneously — including electors who have “made adverse claims” against other electors that Debrow represents,
which prosecutors say is clear conflict of interest.

The filing cites interviews Fulton County prosecutors conducted on April 12 and April 14 with some of the electors
represented by Debrow, which Debrow attended.

“During these interviews, some of the electors stated that another elector represented by Ms. Debrow committed
acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not party to these additional acts,” the filing states.
“Additionally, in these interviews, some of the electors represented by Ms. Debrow told members of the investigation
team that no potential offer of immunity was ever brought to them in 2022.”

Prosecutors say those claims are in “direct conflict” with statements made in court last year by attorney Holly
Pierson, who previously served as Debrow’s co-counsel in the case. Pierson told a judge they had informed their
clients about offers of immunity made by Willis’s office as prosecutors sought their testimony before a special
purpose grand jury impaneled to investigate alleged 2020 election interference.

In an email, Debrow denied the allegations, calling the prosecution motion “baseless, false, and offensive.” “None of
my clients have committed any crimes,” Debrow said, adding that they “have not implicated themselves or each
other in any crimes.”
“Each interview referred to was recorded, and the court will be able to hear for itself how the DA’s office has
completely misrepresented the facts,” Debrow added. “I have ethically and professionally represented my clients at
all times, and I will continue to do so.”

Pierson — who now represents just one of the electors, Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer — said the
prosecution allegations are “entirely false” and that the court “already has documents in its possession … that prove
the DA’s allegations false.”

“Sadly, the DA’s office continues to seem more interested in media attention, trampling on the constitutional rights
of innocent citizens, and recklessly defaming its perceived opponents than in the facts, the law, or the truth,” Pierson
said in an email.

The motion comes as Willis has signaled she is close to making public her decision on whether she will file charges in
the high-stakes investigation, which has ensnared not only Trump and some of his closest aides and allies but a
litany of prominent Republicans including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)
and several top Georgia officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who were targets of Trump’s lobbying to overturn
Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state.

Willis, a longtime Fulton County prosecutor who was elected district attorney in 2020, launched her investigation
into alleged election interference just days after a recording was made public of a January 2021 phone call that
Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find” enough votes to overturn
Trump’s defeat in Georgia.

It was one of several calls Trump and his associates made to Georgia officials prodding them to undertake efforts to
change the results of the state’s presidential election, which Trump lost by fewer than 12,000 votes.

But Willis has indicated publicly and in court filings that her office’s investigation has expanded include several
other lines of inquiry, including false claims of election fraud that Giuliani and other Trump associates made to
Georgia state lawmakers; threats and harassment targeting Georgia election workers; and the alternate Republican
electors.

Willis and her team are said to be closely examining not only Trump’s phone calls but what knowledge he had and
role he played in efforts including those false electors. Willis has indicated she is eyeing Georgia’s expansive anti-
racketeering law as she considers whether Trump and his allies conspired to break the law in seeking to overturn the
state’s election results.

Willis told The Washington Post last year that she and other prosecutors had heard credible allegations that serious
crimes had been committed and that she believed some people could be facing prison sentences.

At least 18 people have been notified they are targets of the election interference investigation, according to court
documents and statements from their attorneys. That list includes Giuliani and the slate of 16 alternate Republican
electors.
Last year, Willis sought the testimony of those electors before the special grand jury, but only one is known to have
been among the 75 witnesses who appeared before the panel.

Last year, prosecutors waged a battle to block Pierson and Debrow from jointly representing 11 of those GOP
electors, describing it as a violation of legal and ethical rules.

In November, Judge Robert McBurney, who presided over the special grand jury, ruled that Shafer could not share
an attorney with the other 10 electors represented by Pierson and Debrow. At that time, Pierson took Shafer’s case,
while Debrow represented the other group.

The legal fees for Shafer and the 10 electors are being paid by the Georgia Republican Party.

Willis’s filing Tuesday indicates that some of those electors who had been reluctant to give testimony in the case may
now be cooperating with the investigation — though it was not immediately clear if that was because they had been
granted immunity or if any had provided information beyond interviews with prosecutors.

A spokesman for Willis declined to comment.

The special grand jury was dissolved in January after issuing a final report on its findings. That report remains
mostly sealed to protect the rights of “potential future defendants,” according to McBurney.

But Emily Kohrs, the panel’s forewoman, has said the grand jury recommended the indictment of several people.
She has declined to say whether Trump was among them — citing McBurney’s instruction to keep jury deliberations
private until prosecutors decide whether to file charges — but also told reporters the public would not be “shocked”
at the panel’s recommendations given news about the case.

Last month, Trump’s Georgia-based legal team — Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg — seized on
Kohrs’s public comments about the grand jury proceedings as they filed a motion to quash the panel’s report and
block prosecutors from using any evidence gathered during the investigation. They argued the panel was
“unconstitutional” and had violated Trump’s due process rights.

Trump’s lawyers also sought to remove Willis and her office from the case along with McBurney — suggesting he had
given poor advice to the grand jury. McBurney, who continues to oversee the case, has ordered prosecutors to file a
response to Trump’s legal team by May 1.

Willis has said little publicly about her timeline for potentially bringing a case. In January, Willis told McBurney
during a court hearing that charging decisions were “imminent,” but she later clarified to a reporter for the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution that she did not necessarily mean she would announce those decisions anytime soon.

Tuesday’s filing indicates that Willis’s investigation continues to be active, and a source close to the case has said
prosecutors are continuing to review evidence as Willis nears her public announcement on potential indictments.
To bring charges, Willis would have to present her case to a regular grand jury that, unlike the special-purpose grand
jury, has the power to bring criminal indictments. In Fulton County, grand jury terms begin every two months. The
next panels are scheduled to begin the first week of May.
2/4/24, 11:25 PM Fulton DA offered immunity to ‘fake’ electors, asks for attorney to removed from case, motion shows – WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta

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2/4/24, 11:25 PM Fulton DA offered immunity to ‘fake’ electors, asks for attorney to removed from case, motion shows – WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta

Drag to Resize Video

ATLANTA

Fulton
DA By WSBTV.com
offered News Staff
April 18, 2023 at 3:15
immunit
+ Caption
pm EDT

y to
‘fake’
electors,
asks for
attorney
to
removed
from
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/fulton-da-offered-immunity-fake-electors-asks-attorney-removed-case-motion-shows/TN5XMF4Z4VEHLE23… 2/9
2/4/24, 11:25 PM Fulton DA offered immunity to ‘fake’ electors, asks for attorney to removed from case, motion shows – WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta

case,
motion
shows

By WSBTV.com News
Staff
April 18, 2023 at 3:15 pm
EDT

ATLANTA — The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has offered immunity deals to
several fake electors who gathered at the State Capitol in 2020 to cast Electoral College
votes for former President Donald Trump.

The revelation was made public on Tuesday in a filing from the DA’s office, which also
asked that one of the attorneys representing those electors be disqualified from the case.

According to the filing, Kimberly Burroughs Debrow, who represents 10 of the electors,
failed to inform her clients about the potential immunity deals after they were offered last
summer.

In the filing, Willis said Debrow’s representation of the 10 electors has become an
“impracticable and ethical mess” after interviews with some of the electors last week
showed that they told the investigation team that “no potential offer of immunity was ever
brought to them in 2022.”

RELATED STORIES:

Released testimony sheds new light on meeting of false electors in 2020

presidential election
New court filing confirms 11 GOP false electors potential targets in election
tampering probe
Special grand jury focuses on fake electors during Wednesday testimony

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/fulton-da-offered-immunity-fake-electors-asks-attorney-removed-case-motion-shows/TN5XMF4Z4VEHLE23… 3/9
2/4/24, 11:25 PM Fulton DA offered immunity to ‘fake’ electors, asks for attorney to removed from case, motion shows – WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta

Source: Trump campaign asked ‘alternate’ electors to keep meeting secret

following 2020 election

The court documents said the electors had been told by Debrow and her then-co-counsel,
Holly Pierson, on Aug. 5, 2022, that none of their clients were interested in immunity.

At least 11 electors are part of Willis’ investigation into potential tampering in the 2020
presidential election.

Channel 2 political reporter Richard Elliot was in the room in December 2020 as 16
GOP false electors signed a document declaring their votes for Trump.

Former State GOP chair David Shafer testified that the only reason they met was to keep
former President Donald Trump’s elections lawsuits alive and that he was unaware of
larger efforts to use the slate to overturn the election in Congress.

Shafer has since stepped down as chair of the Georgia GOP. He has also been named as a
target of the investigation.

The motion comes as Willis decides whether or not to bring criminal charges in the
investigation into potential election tampering.

RELATED NEWS:

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2/4/24, 11:25 PM Fulton DA offered immunity to ‘fake’ electors, asks for attorney to removed from case, motion shows – WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta

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Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for

some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical
mess'
April 18, 2023 4:32 PM
Updated: July 27, 2023 4:24 PM
By: Stephen Fowler

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis watches proceedings during a hearing to decide if
the final report by a special grand jury looking into possible interference in the 2020
presidential election can be released Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Atlanta.

Credit: AP Photo/John Bazemore

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to remove a lawyer from
representing 10 Georgia Republicans who served as fake 2020 electors for Donald Trump
after several of them allegedly accused a fellow elector of breaking state law last week.

Tuesday's filing also alleged that attorney Kimberly Burroughs Debrow also failed to notify
her clients of potential immunity deals that prosecutors offered last summer, and comes as
charging decisions are expected soon in the sweeping investigation into the Trump-led
effort to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia.

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Document 1 of 11 94%

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Debrow and attorney Holly Pierson initially represented 11 of the 16 people who falsely
signed documents claiming to be Georgia's electors, including Georgia GOP chairman
David Shafer, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled in
November 2022 that Shafer took on a more active role in convening the alternate electors
than the rest of the 11 so he had to be represented separately. Pierson agreed to be Shafer's
lawyer while Debrow retained the remainder of the 10.

The DA's filing reveals that as recently as last week, her office interviewed some of the fake
electors represented by Debrow and some of them said that another elector represented by
Debrow "committed acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not party to
these additional acts."

Practically speaking, Willis argues that the new information means the 10 electors Debrow
represents are no longer similarly situated, and creates a conflict of interest that means
she can not ethically represent any of the electors anymore.

"Debrow representing 10 of the electors has reached an 'impracticable and ethical mess,'"
Willis wrote, further compounded by news that some of the electors were allegedly never
informed of the possibility of immunity deals with prosecutors when they were first
approached last summer.

RELATED: Fake GOP electors targeted in Fulton County special grand jury
probe

According to the filing, attorneys for the fake electors previously indicated none of them
were interested in conversations about immunity.

It is not clear how many of the 10 Republicans are accused another of committing a crime,
or what the crimes may be. Most of the names of those who met in the state Capitol and
signed falsified documents purporting to be official electors are prominent members of the
state's Republican party apparatus, including Brad Carver, a current Congressional
District GOP chairman, state Sen. Shawn Still and Cathy Latham, a former GOP official in
Coffee County who was involved with an effort to make an unauthorized copy of election
data by Trump-aligned attorneys and election deniers.

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Willis' motion comes after weeks of relative radio silence following a ruling in mid-
February that released parts of the brief recommendations from the special purpose grand
jury that investigated the sweeping efforts to reverse Trump's defeat. The special grand
jury did not have the power to issue indictments, but its findings apparently offered a road
map for Willis to take evidence to a regular grand jury to seek charges.

"Having reviewed the final report, the undersigned concludes that the special purpose
grand jury did not exceed the scope of its prescribed mission," Judge McBurney wrote in
his February order. "Indeed, it provided the District Attorney with exactly what she
requested: a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to
the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia."

The decision to redact most of the recommendations citing concerns over due process has
been appealed by a coalition of media outlets and is being taken up by the Georgia Court of
Appeals.

Meanwhile, this disqualification request also comes as the DA's office faces a May 1
deadline to respond to a sweeping motion from Trump's lawyers seeking to
invalidate the special grand jury statute, disqualify Willis from prosecuting anyone in
relation to the election interference investigation of the special jury, prevent any evidence
gathered in the process from being used by any prosecutor and essentially end any probe
into the 2020 election's aftermath.

Trump was never interviewed or subpoenaed by the special grand jury, though it is
possible that Willis could seek charges against him based on existing public statements
and evidence, testimony from more than 70 witnesses heard in private or through the
state's racketeering statute.

Tags: Fulton probe Georgia Politics Election Interference Georgia Atlanta

Georgia Indictments

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

About the author

STEPHEN FOWLER
POLITICAL REPORTER

Stephen Fowler is an award-winning reporter for GPB News covering state and local
politics and host of the Battleground: Ballot Box podcast.

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Related News

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Some of the Fulton County special grand jury report into

election interference has been released

Here's what we know (and don't know) after a partial release of the Fulton County special
purpose grand jury report detailing its investigation of election interference in 2020.

February 16, 2023 | By: Stephen Fowler

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

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Could Georgia's Fani Willis be removed from prosecuting

Donald Trump?

Accusations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an affair with a special
prosecutor she hired to seek convictions of Donald Trump and others for interfering in
Georgia's 2020 election have led to renewed calls to remove Willis from the case. Willis, an
elected Democrat, has shown no signs of stepping down yet. But there are ways she could
be removed.

January 24, 2024 | By: Associated Press

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2/4/24, 11:26 PM Fulton DA seeks to disqualify lawyer for some GOP fake electors, citing 'ethical mess' | Georgia Public Broadcasting

NEWS

Lawyer hired to prosecute Trump in Georgia is thrust into

the spotlight over affair claims

Allegations of a romantic relationship between a Georgia district attorney and an outside

lawyer she hired has roiled the 2020 election case against Donald Trump and 18 others.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has defended her hiring of Nathan Wade, but
she has yet to directly address the assertion that the two are romantically involved.

January 19, 2024 | By: Associated Press

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2/4/24, 11:27 PM Fake Trump electors pointing fingers in Georgia election inquiry; DA seeks removal of defense attorney

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Fake Trump electors pointing fingers in Georgia

election inquiry; DA seeks removal of defense
attorney
Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
28
Updated April 18, 2023 · 2 min read

Learn more

In recent days, some Republican electors who cast phony ballots to elect
Donald Trump in 2020 have provided Atlanta prosecutors with potentially
incriminating information involving another as part of the long-running
election interference inquiry in Georgia, according to court documents
filed Tuesday.

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2/4/24, 11:27 PM Fake Trump electors pointing fingers in Georgia election inquiry; DA seeks removal of defense attorney

The disclosure was contained in court papers calling for the

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disqualification of defense attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow who
represents 10 of the electors in the inquiry, including those interviewed by
Fulton County, Georgia prosecutors as recently as last week.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asserted that Debrow's
representation of the group raises serious conflict of interest questions
that have now reached an "impracticable and ethical mess."

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, right, talks with a member of her team during proceedings
to seat a special purpose grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, on May 2, to look into the actions of
former President Donald Trump and his supporters who tried to overturn the results of the 2020… ... More

"During these interviews, some of the electors stated another elector

represented by Ms. Debrow committed acts that are in violation of
Georgia law and they were not party to these additional acts," the court
documents state.

The nature of the conduct was described, though prosecutors have been
pursuing a wide-ranging inquiry involving election fraud and the electors'
roles in casting the fake Trump ballots.

Electors also told investigators that they were not informed of potential
offers of immunity in exchange for their cooperation even though Debrow
and another attorney, Holly Pierson, offered a conflicting account to a
Fulton County court in August.

At that time, prosecutors said the attorneys informed them that their
clients were not interested in striking immunity agreements.

More: Are 'more serious' legal woes ahead for Trump? Experts say NYC
case may be least of his worries

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2/4/24, 11:27 PM Fake Trump electors pointing fingers in Georgia election inquiry; DA seeks removal of defense attorney

More: Trump lawyers seek to quash Atlanta grand jury report, recuse DA's
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office from inquiry

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney speaks during a Jan. 24 hearing in Atlanta to
decide if the final report by a special grand jury looking into possible interference in the 2020
presidential election can be released.

Debrow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pierson said the prosecutors' claims were "entirely false."

"Sadly, the DA's office continues to seem more interested in media

attention, trampling on the constitutional rights of innocent citizens, and
recklessly defaming its perceived opponents than in the facts, the law, or
the truth," Pierson said.

The disclosure comes as the district attorney weighs whether to pursue

charges in an investigation first prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021 telephone call
in which Trump pressed Georgia's top election official to find enough votes
to overturn the election results in the key battleground state.

Willis' inquiry is only one several inquiries shadowing Trump as he pursues

a new bid for the White House.

Earlier this month, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts in

connection with hush money paid to a adult film star in the final weeks of
the 2020 campaign related to an alleged affair years earlier.

More: Trump 2024 campaign strategy after indictment prepares

supporters for more charges against him

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia DA: Fake Trump
electors pointing fingers in election inquiry

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2/4/24, 11:28 PM Georgia's 'fake' Trump electors turn on each other, Fulton DA says | 11alive.com

Georgia's 'fake' Trump electors turn

on each other, Fulton DA says

DA Willis has yet to say if she will seek criminal charges.

Author: 11alive.com
Published: 5:10 PM EDT April 18, 2023
Updated: 5:10 PM EDT April 18, 2023

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2/4/24, 11:30 PM Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump fake electors off the case, says there’s conflict

Deadline: Legal Blog

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Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump fake electors off the
case, says there’s conflict
There are signs of life in the probe into 2020 election interference in Georgia. How those signs impact
Donald Trump and others remains to be seen.

April 20, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT

By Jordan Rubin

What has Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis been up to? We’ve all been
wondering since she said months ago that decisions from her office about its 2020 election

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2/4/24, 11:30 PM Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump fake electors off the case, says there’s conflict

interference probe were “imminent.” Well, we got an update this week.

Specifically, there may be some flipping among the so-called fake electors — the people who
signed false slates of electors for then-President Donald Trump during the 2020 election — and
it’s leading Willis to try and get a state GOP-paid lawyer kicked off the matter.

That lawyer is Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow, who’s been representing 10 of the Georgia
Republicans who sought to push Trump into office despite him losing to Joe Biden. According to
a filing from Willis on Tuesday, some of them have implicated another in criminal activity
(though the filing didn't specify which elector or what alleged crime or crimes). That led Willis to
seek Debrow’s disqualification because, per Willis, her office interviewed some of those electors
last week, which revealed not only that some of them are implicating another, but that the
defense never conveyed immunity offers to the electors that were broached last year. (Debrow
has denied Willis’ allegation.)

But wait. Why is Willis, the prosecutor, getting involved with defense representation? Don’t
people have a right to their chosen lawyer if they’re informed about any potential conflict (and if
they can afford the lawyer)?

Yes, but not without exception. A lawyer needs to keep their client’s best interests in mind,
which can be complicated when a lawyer represents multiple clients. When clients’ interests
conflict, that can make it close to impossible for a lawyer to act on one client’s interests without
negatively impacting another's. As Willis has framed the situation in her filing — which, again,
Debrow contests — such a conflict appears to be a serious possibility here.

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2/4/24, 11:30 PM Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump fake electors off the case, says there’s conflict

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a hearing Jan. 24 in Atlanta. John Bazemore / AP file

However the representation issue gets sorted out, the more important takeaway for now may be
the possibility of potential flipping and immunity that have led the DA to take the step of seeking
Debrow’s disqualification.

So what does this mean for the timing of the Georgia investigation and potential charges?
Remember, the special grand jury that recommended charges (in a still partially sealed report)
was purely investigative — it couldn’t vote on an indictment. To secure an indictment, Willis
needs to go through a regular grand jury. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the DA “is
expected to seek indictments next month” but that it “was not immediately clear if the latest
development could delay the timetable.”

Given the apparently sprawling nature of Willis' investigation — compared to Trump’s New York
indictment, for example, where he’s the only defendant on a narrow set of charges — it won’t be
surprising if Georgia charges don’t come next month, either. But the latest known action in
Fulton County suggests that Willis’ office is actively working toward charges. Whatever those
charges might be and against whom, we still do not know.

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2/4/24, 11:30 PM Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump fake electors off the case, says there’s conflict

Jordan Rubin

Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in
Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MSNBC, he was a
legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.

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2/4/24, 11:31 PM 'Fake' Coffee County Trump elector wants GA investigation ended | 11alive.com

GEORGIA TRUMP INVESTIGATION

'Fake' Coffee County Trump elector

wants 2020 Georgia election
investigation ended
Cathy Latham, who also played a key role in the copying of election
data in Coffee County, filed the motion Friday

Author: Nick Wooten

Published: 4:05 PM EDT April 28, 2023
Updated: 5:01 PM EDT April 28, 2023

ATLANTA — One of the "fake" electors for former President Donald Trump is working to stop
Atlanta prosecutors from proceeding with their investigation into alleged criminal interference
in Georgia's 2020 presidential election.

An attorney for Cathy Latham, the former chair of the Coffee County Republican Party, filed a
motion Friday joining Trump's efforts to bury a special purpose grand jury report that
recommends more than a dozen people be indicted for their actions.

Both Latham and Trump want Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office barred
from any further investigation or prosecutions related to the election. The pair also argue
evidence uncovered by the special purpose grand jury was "unconstitutionally derived" and no
prosecutor should be able to use it.

RELATED: Trump moves to block Georgia election investigation from proceeding, remove
Fulton County DA from possible cases

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/special-reports/ga-trump-investigation/cathy-latham-fake-trump-elector-georgia-2020-wants-election-investigation… 1/3
2/4/24, 11:31 PM 'Fake' Coffee County Trump elector wants GA investigation ended | 11alive.com

Latham, a retired school teacher, was one of 16 Republicans who cast Electoral College ballots
falsely claiming Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

Trump filed his motion to quash the jury's report in March.

North Carolina attorney Kieran J. Shanahan filed the motion on Latham's behalf. Shanahan
didn't return a call from 11Alive before publication.

2022-EX-000024 - EX PARTE FILING

Contributed by Nicholas Wooten

Document 1 of 7 100%

"The actions of the Fulton County District Attorney's Office as set forth in the Trump Motion
have violated Mrs. Latham's constitutional rights, have tainted the evidence allegedly gathered
by the (jury), and have intruded upon the traditional independence and safeguards of the
institution of the grand jury itself," Latham's motion reads.

Latham also played a key role in the alleged breaching and copying of election data in Coffee
County on Jan. 7, 2021. Both the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Fulton County District
Attorney are investigating the breach.

Surveillance footage shows Latham escorting operatives working with former Trump attorney
Sidney Powell through the front door of the county's election office. The operatives then spent
hours inside the office copying election data.

Texts reviewed by 11Alive and obtained through a years-long civil lawsuit challenging the
security of Georgia’s electronic voting systems show Trump allies were invited to inspect the
county's voting system.

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2/4/24, 11:31 PM 'Fake' Coffee County Trump elector wants GA investigation ended | 11alive.com

“Huge things are starting to come together! Most immediately, we were granted access - by
written invitation! - to the Coffee County systens (sic). Yay!”, said Trump attorney Katherine
Friess in a Jan. 1, 2021 text message.

RELATED: 'Ethical mess' | Georgia's 'fake' Trump electors turn on each other, Fulton DA says

According to a motion filed last week by Willis, some of the fake electors are accusing another
elector of violating state law. Prosecutors don't identify the alleged crime or the elector who
may have violated state law.

Willis filed the motion in an effort to remove attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow, who was
representing 10 of the fake Trump electors. Willis alleged that Debrow failed to inform the
electors of immunity offers in 2022.

Debrow denied the allegations and has until May 5 to respond to Willis.

Pro-Trump operatives inside Coffee County Georgia election office | New security v

Related Articles

Report: Atlanta jury in Trump, 2020 election investigation recommended multiple

indictments

Testimony ties Trump to Coffee County breach

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2/4/24, 11:33 PM At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election probe | AP News

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At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election

probe

Read
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a portrait, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn More
Anderson)

BY KATE BRUMBACK
Published 9:18 PM EST, May 5, 2023

ATLANTA (AP) — The prosecutor investigating possible illegal meddling in the 2020 election in
Georgia has agreed to immunity deals with at least eight Republican fake electors who signed a
certificate falsely stating that then-President Donald Trump had won the state.

Defense attorney Kimberly Debrow revealed the existence of the immunity deals in a court
filing Friday, saying her eight clients had accepted the agreements last month. The filing does
not identify the people who were offered immunity deals.

Last July, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office revealed that each of the 16 people
who signed the false elector certificate was a target of her investigation, which is examining
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2/4/24, 11:33 PM At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election probe | AP News

whether Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his narrow
election loss.

The 16 fake electors met at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate
declaring falsely that Trump had won the presidential election and declaring themselves the
state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

READ MORE

Georgia sues Biden administration to extend Medicaid program with work requirement

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2/4/24, 11:33 PM At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election probe | AP News

Fani Willis acknowledges a ‘personal relationship’ with prosecutor she hired in Trump’s
Georgia case

Vibrations in cooling system mean new Georgia nuclear reactor will again be delayed

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2/4/24, 11:33 PM At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election probe | AP News

The news of the immunity deals shows that Willis continues to work on her case as she
prepares to make decisions on whether to seek charges this summer. In letters sent to law
enforcement agencies late last month, she advised them to prepare adequate security as she
intends to announce her charging decisions between mid-July and early September.
Debrow’s filing Friday came in response to a motion filed last month by Willis seeking to bar the
defense attorney from further participation in the proceedings stemming from the
investigation. Debrow called Willis’ motion “reckless, frivolous, offensive, and completely
without merit.”

A spokesperson for Willis on Friday declined to comment on Debrow’s motion.

At the time when Willis informed the 16 fake electors last summer that they could face charges
in the investigation, 11 of them were represented by Debrow and another attorney, Holly
Pierson, who were hired by the state Republican Party. Fulton County Superior Judge Robert
McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury that had been seated to aid the investigation,
ruled in November that Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer could not share an
attorney with the other 10 fake electors represented by Debrow and Pierson. As a result,
Pierson continued to represent Shafer and Debrow represented the other 10.

Debrow said in the Friday filing that when the district attorney’s office offered immunity deals
to eight of her 10 clients, she consulted with her other two clients and they determined that the
“most conservative and practical course” was for those two people to hire their own lawyers.
She said they have since done that.

In her motion last month, Willis said that in interviews with her team in April some of Debrow’s
clients said another of the fake electors she represents “committed acts that are violations of
Georgia law.” The motion also says some of Debrow’s clients said they were never told about
possible immunity deals last summer despite Pierson having told the court that they had
spoken to their clients and none were interested.

Debrow’s representation of 10 of the fake electors represents a clear conflict and had become
an “impracticable and ethical mess,” Willis wrote.

Willis “has falsely but publicly maligned the integrity of two well-respected and fellow members
of the Bar based on fictional claims known to be untrue when made,” Debrow wrote. “Such
reckless and unprofessional conduct is simply untenable and unacceptable.”

The only actual immunity offers made by Willis’ team came on April 4, and any prior
discussions were “highly generalized, non-individualized ‘offers to offer’ potential immunity to
undisclosed recipients,” Debrow wrote. Each of the 11 people she and Pierson represented last
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2/4/24, 11:33 PM At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election probe | AP News

summer was provided with information in August on the existence and possible implications of
potential immunity offers. All 11 of them declined the offer of potential immunity as presented
at the time, Debrow wrote.

Additionally, Debrow wrote, “none of the interviewed electors said anything in any of their
interviews that was incriminating to themselves or anyone else, and certainly not to any other
elector represented by defense counsel.”

During the interviews with her clients last month, prosecutors never said they believed that any
of Debrow’s clients was incriminating another and never said they objected to her
representation of all of her clients, Debrow wrote.

There was no basis to disqualify her from the case before and that is even more true now that
all of her clients have immunity, Debrow wrote.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Georgia legal team in March filed a motion seeking to toss the special
grand jury report and any evidence related to the panel’s investigation and to bar Willis from
any further involvement in the case. Cathy Latham, who signed the bogus elector certificate,
joined that motion on April 29. Latham had been one of the 10 represented by Debrow, but last
week’s motion was filed by a different lawyer.

McBurney has given Willis until May 15 to file a combined response to Trump and Latham’s
motions.

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2/4/24, 11:33 PM At least 8 fake electors have immunity in Ga. election probe | AP News

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2/4/24, 11:34 PM 8 Trump 'fake electors' have accepted immunity in Georgia election probe, attorney says - ABC News

LOG IN

8 Trump 'fake electors' have accepted

immunity in Georgia election probe,
attorney says
The Fulton County DA is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

By Olivia Rubin
May 5, 2023, 8:01 PM

0:25

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign event in
Manchester, N.H., April 27, 2023.
Brian Snyder/Reuters, FILE

Eight of the so-called "fake electors" in Georgia who were allegedly involved
in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state have
accepted immunity in the Fulton County probe into the matter, according to
their lawyer.

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2/4/24, 11:34 PM 8 Trump 'fake electors' have accepted immunity in Georgia election probe, attorney says - ABC News

In a court filing in the case on Friday, an attorney who represents 10 of the

fake electors said the Fulton County district attorney's office reached out in
April to provide an immunity offer for eight of her clients.

"After reviewing the actual, written offers of immunity, each of those eight
electors accepted their immunity offer," the filing by the attorney, Kimberly
Debrow, said.

MORE: Georgia prosecutors 'target' 16 'fake electors' in 2020

election probe

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is probing former President

Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss in the state, after Trump
was heard in a January 2021 phone call pleading with Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger to help him "find 11,780 votes," the exact number he needed to
win Georgia.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack said the
"fake elector" plan, set up in multiple swing states, assembled "groups of
individuals in key battleground states and got them to call themselves
electors, created phony certificates associated with these fake electors, and
then transmitted these certificates to Washington, and to the Congress, to be
counted during the joint session of Congress on January 6th."

Seven of the electors, according to the filing, have sat for interviews with the
district attorney's office.

All 16 "fake electors" in the state had previously been informed they were
considered targets of the probe.

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2/4/24, 11:34 PM 8 Trump 'fake electors' have accepted immunity in Georgia election probe, attorney says - ABC News

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a ca... Show more
Brian Snyder/Reuters, FILE

The new filing on Friday came after Willis earlier last month asked the judge
to disqualify Debrow from simultaneously representing the electors. Willis
claimed in her court filing that Debrow's representation of multiple electors
amounted to a conflict of interest, especially after some of the electors stated
during interviews with the DA's office that other electors had committed
crimes.

Debrow, in her filing on Friday, denied that accusation.

"At no time during or after any of these interview did the DA election team
state that they believed an elector was incriminating another jointly
represented elector or that they believed a conflict of interest had arisen,"
the filing stated.

Debrow also pushed back on the accusation that she did not bring earlier
immunity offers to her clients, and accused one of the DA's investigators of

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2/4/24, 11:34 PM 8 Trump 'fake electors' have accepted immunity in Georgia election probe, attorney says - ABC News

an "egregious and aggressive" attempt to "mislead" one of the electors during

their interview regarding regarding that issue.

Debrow and the investigator, according to the filing, got into a "heated
exchange" during which the investigator threatened to "tear up" the deal and
indict the elector.

Related Topics
2024 Elections

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2/4/24, 11:34 PM 8 Trump 'fake electors' have accepted immunity in Georgia election probe, attorney says - ABC News

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2/4/24, 11:36 PM Who are Georgia’s alleged fake electors in the Donald Trump investigation?

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Atlanta, GA

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Who are Georgia’s alleged fake electors in the Donald

Trump investigation?
Those electors have been central to Fulton DA Fani Willis’ investigation into whether Trump tried to overturn Georgia’s 2020
presidential election.

Explainer: Former President Donald Trump's alleged fake electors in Georgia

By Tim Darnell and The Associated Press

Published: Jul. 28, 2023 at 11:18 AM EDT | Updated: Jul. 31, 2023 at 11:06 AM EDT

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - In the chaotic aftermath of 2020′s presidential election, 16 Republican electors met at Georgia’s state capitol on
Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate declaring then-President Donald Trump as the winner of the state’s Nov. 3 contest.

Those 16 electors, now alleged to be “fake,” have been central to Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ two-year investigation into whether Trump attempted
to overturn the outcome of that election, an election which eventually saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to win a deep South state in a
presidential race since Bill Clinton in 1992.

According to the Associated Press, the 16 electors signed a certificate not only declaring Trump had won the election, but also declaring themselves
the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

Behind the Investigation with Atlanta News First

THE CALL THAT STARTED IT ALL: Dona

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2/4/24, 11:36 PM Who are Georgia’s alleged fake electors in the Donald Trump investigation?

Willis, according to the AP, has agreed to immunity deals with at least eight of those alleged fake electors. In May, defense attorney Kimberly Debrow
revealed the existence of the immunity deals, saying her eight clients had accepted the agreements in April. The filing does not identify the people
who were offered immunity deals.

In March 2021, American Oversight, a Washington D.C., watchdog group, made public the documents, which it received in response to a public records
request. The entire document also includes a list of alleged fake electors from Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Read: Full transcript of Donald Trump’s call to Brad Raffensperger

Georgia’s list of alleged fake electors listed in the document are Mark Amick; Joseph Brannan; Ken Carroll; Brad Carver; Vikki Consiglio; John Downey;
Carolyn Fisher; Kay Godwin; David Hanna; Mark Hennessey; Burt Jones; Cathleen Latham; Daryl Moody; David Shafer; Shawn Still; and C.B. Yadav.

Documents attempting to certify the election as a Trump victory were submitted by Shafer, then chairman of the Georgia GOP. Shafer has since
stepped down as head of the state party, and Jones, who was a state senator at the time, had just been elected the state’s lieutenant governor.

Key figures in the Donald Trump/Georgia election interference investigation

After Willis opened a criminal investigation “into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election,” a special grand jury
with subpoena power was seated in May 2022. In court filings, Willis alleged “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump campaign to influence the
results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.

Also central to Willis’ investigation is a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump and White House aides made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger,
in which the nation’s 45th president pressured the state’s top elections official to find enough votes for him to win Georgia’s election.

FULL AUDIO: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S PHONE CALL TO GA SECRETARY O…

O…

In a late April letter, Willis warned Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat of “charging decisions” coming this summer in connection with her investigation.
In that same letter, she notified Fulton County deputies she will announce charges from her investigation sometime between July 11 and Sept. 1.

On May 2, Willis said she is planning to make a “historical decision” this summer regarding her investigation. Later that month, she sent a letter to the
Fulton County Superior Court, in which the DA notified Judge Ural Glanville her office plans to work remotely during the first three weeks of August
and asking no trials be scheduled during that time.

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2/4/24, 11:36 PM Who are Georgia’s alleged fake electors in the Donald Trump investigation?

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On July 27, security barriers were seen being set up around the Fulton County courthouse.

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2/4/24, 11:37 PM 2020 Georgia Trump investigation fake / alternate electors | 11alive.com

GEORGIA TRUMP INVESTIGATION

Georgia Trump investigation | Who

are the 'fake' or 'alternate' electors?
Sixteen Republicans met at the Georgia State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020,
and signed documents claiming Trump won the election. Will any be
indicted?

Author: Nick Wooten

Published: 3:03 PM EDT August 1, 2023
Updated: 10:51 PM EDT August 1, 2023

ATLANTA — Sixteen Georgia Republicans met inside the state capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, and
what happened under the Gold Dome that day has been a topic of interest for Fulton County
prosecutors who could criminally charge Donald Trump and his allies.

The group, led by then-GOP chair David Shafer, signed Electoral College documents that
falsely claimed Trump won the 2020 election with instructions from his campaign.

As investigative bodies probed Trump’s attempt to hold onto the presidency, the scheme to
have Trump supporters pose as presidential electors in battleground states received more
attention.

Nearly three years after that meeting, at least half of the Georgia electors have taken immunity
deals as part of District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation into potential election interference. It’s
unclear which of them took deals.

Arguments in defense of and against the electors' actions have been made. Some argue the
electors committed crimes under state law, including forgery. Others argue the electors were

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acting under the advice of legal counsel. The electors, they say, acted properly under the
circumstances and were constitutionally protected.

Attorneys have argued the electors weren’t aware of Trump’s Jan. 6 plans, and the Georgia
Republican party is fundraising for their legal defense.

A Fulton County grand jury will soon decide if any of them will be indicted.

RELATED: What to know about Georgia's Trump investigation

Credit: AP Photo/Jason Getz

Who are the electors?

The sixteen Republicans who served as Trump electors range from high-ranking party officials
to current Georgia senators.

The electors are:

Shafer
Burt Jones: Georgia’s current lieutenant governor, Jones served in the state senate during
the 2020 election.
Shawn Still: A current Georgia state senator, Still served as party secretary during the 2020
election.
Cathleen Alston Latham: A retired school teacher, Lathan is the former Coffee County GOP
chair. Latham is allegedly involved with the reported copying of election data in Coffee
County. That matter is also being investigated by Fulton prosecutors.
Joseph Brannan: The general manager of a Columbus, Georgia, radio station group, Brannan
served as party treasurer during the 2020 election.
James "Ken" Carroll: Carroll, who served in various GOP roles over the years, was the state
party’s assistant secretary during the 2020 election.
Vikki Townsend Consiglio: A current board member of the Georgia Soil and Water
Conservation Commission, Consiglio was the state party’s assistant treasurer during the
2020 election.
Carolyn Hall Fisher: Former chair of the Forsyth County Republican Party, Fisher served as
first vice chair of the state party during the 2020 election.
Gloria Kay Godwin: A longtime GOP activist from Blackshear, Georgia.

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David G. Hanna: A former CEO.

Mark W. Hennessy: A current appointee to the Board of Natural Resources, Hennessy owns
car dealerships.
Mark Amick: A member of the Board of Governors for the Georgia Republican Foundation,
Amick has also unsuccessfully ran for Milton City Council.
John Downey
Daryl Moody: The chairman of the Foundation Board of Governors for the Georgia
Republican Foundation, Moody is also an attorney.
Brad Carver: An attorney and Republican activist.
C.B. Yadav: A small business owner in coastal Camden County, Yadav serves on the
Georgians First Commission under the governor’s office.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge previously ruled that Willis couldn't prosecute Jones
because Willis hosted a fundraiser for Jones' Democratic opponent ahead of the November
election.

The Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia will determine if Jones should be investigated by
a special prosecutor.

Credit: AP
FILE - Georgia Lt. Gov. candidate Burt Jones participates in a Republican primary debate, May 3, 2022, in Atlanta.
Jones' push for a bill allowing a hospital to be built in his home county is complicating end-of-session negotiations
among Georgia lawmakers. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, Pool, File)

What did the electors do?

The 16 Republicans signed Electoral College certificates falsely claiming Trump won the
election. Those certificates were submitted to Congress, state officials and the National
Archive.

The electors are appointed by the state party. Each presidential elector represents one of the
state’s Electoral College votes. In Georgia and most other states, a state’s popular vote result
determines which party's electors are sent to the state capitol. Their votes and the documents
they sign are counted during a joint session of Congress.

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It was similar to plots in other battleground states. The Trump campaign hoped that Vice
President Mike Pence would count the Republican slate of electors or reject the Democratic
electors. The goal was to keep Trump in the White House.

The Georgia electors were directed to use "complete secrecy" by Robert Sinners, Trump’s
election day operations lead in Georgia for 2020. Sinners now serves as a spokesperson for
the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

George Chidi, an independent Atlanta journalist who has been subpoenaed to testify before
both Fulton County grand juries meeting this court term, told 11Alive that he stumbled upon the
meeting after following one of the GOP's alternate electors into a room.

He said he was kicked out of the room shortly after entering and lied to about the purpose of
the meeting.

"I went to the capitol ... because I was concerned after seeing a lot of right-wing extremist
activity," he said. "I didn't realize the Republican electors would actually try to meet there."

Legal experts who previously spoke with 11Alive and a report from the Brookings Institute
indicate that the electors could face fraud and forgery charges in addition to election-related
charges.

However, attorneys for Shafer have argued in recent weeks that the electors' actions were
"constitutionally protected."

A legal challenge to Georgia’s election results filed by Trump and Shafer was still pending
when the electors met. The Republicans, the attorneys argued in a letter to Willis, were acting
under the advice of legal counsel.

Shafer’s actions were protected by the Georgia Constitution as well as the First, Fifth and
Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, according to the letter. The attorneys also
said the Trump electors were acting in a historically appropriate manner, comparing the
situation to the 1960 Democratic electors in Hawaii.

During that race, John Kennedy already won the presidency, but Richard Nixon was declared
the winner in Hawaii by 140 votes.

Democrats challenged the results, and a court-ordered recount was ongoing. With the results
in question, both electors met and sent their documents to Congress. The recount found that
Kennedy won by 115 votes, and the state's electoral votes went to Kennedy.

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To date, the Georgia Republican Party has covered the legal fees for the Trump electors.

Last year, the party paid Strickland Debrow of Newnan, GA, about $170,000. Atlanta-based
Pierson Law LLC received roughly $52,000 from the Georgia GOP.

Kimberly Debrow represented half of the Trump electors while Pierson represents Shafer.

In recently filed campaign disclosures reviewed by 11Alive, the Georgia Republican Party paid
Strickland Debrow nearly $273,000 during the first six months of 2023. Gillen, Withers & Lake
received roughly $46,000 over the same period. Gillen and Lake are the other two attorneys
representing Shafer.

The party launched a new website defending the electors’ actions. They argue the term “fake
elector” is a lie, comparing it to the mythical Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.

Visitors to the site are encouraged to donate for the electors’ defense ahead of potential
indictments.

Willis is expected to announce potential indictments before Sept. 1. She’s previously hinted that
charging decisions will come before Aug. 18.

Related Articles

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down by Atlanta judge

Atlanta journalist who stumbled on Trump electors meeting subpoenaed in 2020

election case

Georgia GOP fundraising for 'fake' electors

LOADING NEXT ARTICLE...

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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

Opinion
Fani Willis successfully flipped eight ‘fake electors.’ Why that
matters to Trump.
More than a dozen of the charges filed against Donald Trump in Georgia go back to a convoluted scheme
to cast Biden's Electoral College win into doubt.

Rudy Giuliani at a news conference at the Republican National Committee on lawsuits about the
outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images file

Aug. 14, 2023, 11:33 PM EDT

By Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor

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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday charged former President Donald Trump
and 18 other people with more than 40 counts related to his attempt to overturn the 2020
election results. It’s a case Willis has been building for 18 months, having launched her probe just
one month after it became clear just how overt Trump had been in trying to subvert the will of
Georgia’s voters.

One of the central components in the indictment involves a

scheme to use a supposed quirk in election law to replace the
state’s 16 presidential electors with an unauthorized
alternative slate.

The inciting incident, so to speak, was clear: Trump’s now infamous call with Secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger, where he insisted that officials could “find 11,000 votes” to flip Joe Biden’s
win. But that was just the most straightforward element of the plan. One of the central
components in the indictment involves a scheme to use a supposed quirk in election law to
replace the state’s 16 presidential electors with an unauthorized alternative slate. Accordingly, a
full 17 of the charges against Trump and his co-defendants are related to this plot.

At least eight of these fake electors have agreed to immunity deals with Willis. While the scheme
was ultimately unsuccessful, Willis’ indictment makes it clear that the corrupt attempt to sow
chaos in the counting of electoral votes involved Trump and his co-conspirators lying to
everyone, including their own supposed allies, in his bid to retain power.

After every presidential election, members of the Electoral College meet to cast their votes for
president. These electors are part of a slate chosen ahead of the election to support each of the
candidates. Whichever candidate wins the popular vote has their slate of electors cast their
votes, which are submitted to Congress for counting on Jan. 6.

That’s exactly what happened in every state, including Georgia, on Dec. 14, 2020. That should
have been the end of it, but, under the direction of Rudy Giuliani, then Trump’s lawyer, the
Republican slate of pro-Trump electors also assembled in Georgia and six other states to cast
their votes.

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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

Maddow: As states take lead on fake elector probes, Trump's role is a likely endpoint

Those votes didn’t have the force of law behind them. All of the court cases challenging the
results had already been tossed out at this point, including at the Supreme Court on Dec. 11 when
it rejected a suit from Texas challenging the results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and
Wisconsin. The Trump campaign’s legal team, which had been helping organize the elector
slates, stepped back from the effort after that point. One campaign lawyer testified to the House
Jan. 6 committee that he’d told his colleagues that “unless we have litigation pending like in
these states, like I don’t think this is appropriate or, you know, this isn’t the right thing to do.”

But the plot still went forward. The “fake electors” cast their votes and signed their names to
documents lawyer Kenneth Chesebro had provided to them. From there, the plan was to send
those documents to Congress and the National Archives as the “real” electoral votes in those
states. As Chesebro wrote in an email obtained by the Jan. 6 committee, “the purpose of having
the electoral votes sent in to Congress is to provide the opportunity to debate the election
irregularities in Congress, and to keep alive the possibility that the votes could be flipped to
Trump.” (Chesebro and Giuliani are most likely two of the six unnamed co-conspirators special
counsel Jack Smith described in the indictment.)

Admittedly, the “fake electors plot” sounds like something you might have briefly heard about in
high school history class as you raced through the post-Civil War era. That’s fitting, because it’s
based on a willful misreading of a 19th century law, the Electoral Count Act. Under the theory
put forward by lawyer John Eastman — another unindicted co-conspirator — the vice president

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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

could unilaterally determine whether certain electoral votes were valid when Congress
assembled to count them.

LIVE POLL 28,472 VOTES

Do you think Fani Willis will be able to convict

Trump in Georgia?

Yes, she has the goods. No, this will be a tough

case.

This was incorrect — and Congress modified the law last year to make that explicit — but it still
formed the backbone of the attempt to either throw out the electoral votes of seven states
altogether or send them back to their GOP-controlled state legislatures to potentially declare the
Trump slates authentic. That included Georgia, where Trump’s allies had been leaning on the
members of the Legislature for months in preparation of having it vote to affirm the 16 fake
electors.

While members of the Trump campaign were publicly insisting that the efforts to arrange the
fake electors were just a contingency plan, many of the steps taken to have them sow confusion
took place in plain sight, despite some failed pleas from the plot’s organizers to have the electors
work “in complete secrecy.” As I wrote last year, “many of these efforts, including the pro-Trump
slates of electors in states he didn’t win, were dismissed as ‘political stunts.’ But here’s the thing:
It’s only a ‘stunt’ if you know it’s not going to work. A ‘stunt’ is meant for show. It seems, though,

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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

that the Trump campaign was hoping its plan would be consequential; in other words, it lacked
the presumption of failure.”

More from MSNBC Daily

Must reads from Today's list

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Paul Waldman

Which brings us back to the fake electors’ legal liability: For that reason, Smith and the Justice
Department been eyeing the “fake electors” component of the plot for nearly a year now. Several
of those Republicans who signed onto the fake documents have been called in to testify to a
federal grand jury in Washington in exchange for limited immunity. Smith had also begun
homing in on whether lawyers like Giuliani “were following specific instructions from Trump or
others, and what those instructions were,” in coordinating the scheme, according to The
Washington Post.

There has been a growing legal threat for the fake electors themselves at the state level, as well.
Last month, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 of them with eight felony counts
each, including forgery for putting their names to fake documents. A similar probe is underway
in Arizona. And while many have taken Willis’ offer of immunity in exchange for their testimony,
there are still several who were previously told that they are targets in her criminal investigation.

They include former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathleen Latham, all of
whom joined Trump in being charged as part of the scheme under Georgia’s anti-racketeering,
or RICO, laws. The three of them were also charged with impersonating public officers under
Georgia state law for having "unlawfully falsely held themselves out as the duly elected and
qualified presidential electors." Trump, Giuliani, Eastman, Chesebro and two others have been
charged with conspiring with those fake electors "with intent to mislead" officials into believing
they were actual electors. There are also several other charges related to: forging, and conspiring
to forge, those fake electoral certificates, pressuring officials to accept the fake electors and
submitting false statements related to the scheme.

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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

All in all, Willis appears to have thrown the book at the participants in this case, finding every
instance possible when Trump and his allies broke the law in trying to bring this scheme to
fruition. It's a massive amount of evidence, a huge number of charges, and it will be fascinating
to see which states follow Willis' lead to bring similar cases for this intensely well-documented
attempt to steal an election.

Hayes Brown

Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily, where he helps frame the news of the day for readers. He was previously at
BuzzFeed News and holds a degree in international relations from Michigan State University.

MSNBC DAILY
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2/4/24, 11:38 PM Georgia fake electors scheme adds to Trump list of indictments

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2/4/24, 11:41 PM Fake Electors 'Perfectly' Positioned to Flip on Donald Trump: Kirschner

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Politics U.S. Politics Glenn Kirschner Donald Trump DOJ Department

Fake Electors 'Perfectly'

Positioned to Flip on Donald
Trump: Kirschner
Published Sep 10, 2023 at 12:19 PM EDT

Updated Sep 10, 2023 at 2:37 PM EDT

By Thomas Kika
Weekend Staff Writer

FOLLOW

411

Many of the fake electors and co-conspirators from former President Donald Trump's
alleged election interference scheme in Georgia are "perfectly" positioned to flip on him,
according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.

Trump last month was hit with his fourth criminal indictment, this time stemming from
his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia
using a slate of fake electors. Resulting from a long-term investigation led by Fulton
County District Attorney Fani Willis, Trump, and 18 other co-defendants, were charged
with state-level violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO)
Act, among other charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, as
he has done for all of the other cases he is embroiled in.

Among the co-defendants in the case, several, including former White House chief of
staff Mark Meadows, attempted to petition for their cases to be moved to a federal court,
which could result in a friendlier Trump-appointed judge and a friendly jury pool.

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2/4/24, 11:41 PM Fake Electors 'Perfectly' Positioned to Flip on Donald Trump: Kirschner

Meadows' bid was ultimately rejected by a Northern District of Georgia judge and had
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been questioned by legal experts, since it required him to be questioned under oath prior
to his actual trial.

Former President Donald Trump is seen. Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Sunday argued that
Trump's Georgia co-defendants are well-positioned to flip on him.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/GETTY IMAGES

Appearing on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show on Sunday, Kirschner, who spent decades
as a U.S. attorney before becoming a legal analyst with staunchly critical views of Trump
for various news outlets, told host Katie Phang that he would advise the co-defendants to
withdraw their motions for removal, adding that they are well-positioned to flip on Trump
moving forward.

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"[I would] say, 'It's time to withdraw your motion, your attempt to have your case
transferred to federal court, and it's time to cut a deal,'" Kirschner said. "I mean, many of
these fake electors have already gone on record as saying, 'We were acting at Donald
Trump's direction.' That perfectly positions them to be cooperating witnesses."

Newsweek reached out to other legal experts via email for comment.

The Katie Phang Show

@katiephangshow · Follow

"Many of these fake electors have already gone on record

in saying: 'We were acting at Donald Trump's direction.'
That perfectly positions them to be cooperating
witnesses." @glennkirschner2 on why Trump's co-
defendants shouldn't move their cases to federal court
#KatiePhangShow

Watch on X

8:29 AM · Sep 10, 2023

446 Reply Share

Read 10 replies

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2/4/24, 11:41 PM Fake Electors 'Perfectly' Positioned to Flip on Donald Trump: Kirschner

During his arraignment hearing in Fulton County, Georgia, Trump indicatedSUBSCRIBE

to a judgeFOR
that$1
he "may" be considering a similar motion to request that his case be moved to a federal
court. The former president previously attempted such a request for his state charges in
New York, but was shot down by a judge.

Legal experts have suggested that Trump might find more success with this tactic in
Georgia, given that his alleged conduct was more closely tied to his official duties during
his time as president, but Meadows' rejection on similar grounds cast uncertainty onto
the possibility.

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2/4/24, 11:42 PM Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases moved to federal court - ABC News

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Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump

'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases
moved to federal court
A judge heard arguments Wednesday in the Georgia election interference case.

By Lucien Bruggeman and Olivia Rubin

September 20, 2023, 1:20 PM

1:57

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addr... Show More
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters,FILE

Fulton County prosecutors rebutted claims that three so-called "alternate

electors" amounted to federal officials during a hearing Wednesday in
District Attorney Fani Willis' Georgia election interference case.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-trump-defendants-seek-move-georgia-election-interference/story?id=103325364 1/7
2/4/24, 11:42 PM Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases moved to federal court - ABC News

Judge Steve Jones, for a third time, heard arguments during an evidentiary
hearing in Atlanta on the issue of federal removal, this time from David
Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathy Latham -- three of former President Donald
Trump's so-called "alternate electors" who are charged in the conspiracy
case.

The three are following in the footsteps of former Trump Chief of Staff Mark
Meadows and former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, two federal
officials who were charged in the case and have sought to move their cases
based on a federal law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings
brought in state court to the federal court system when a federal official or
someone acting under them is charged for actions they allegedly took while
acting "under color" of their office.

MORE: Judge denies Mark Meadows' bid to remove his Georgia

election case to federal court

Shafer, Still and Latham are charged with impersonating a public officer and
forgery, among other crimes, after they allegedly met with 13 other
individuals in December 2020 and put forward electors' certificates falsely
stating that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state's "duly
elected and qualified" electors.

Attorneys for the three told the judge that their clients' efforts were legal and
that their actions qualify them to have their cases removed to federal court.

But Fulton County prosecutors slammed the defendants' argument as a

"fantasy" that was "untethered" to reality.

"These private parties did not transform into public officials by committing a
crime," prosecutor Anna Cross told the court. "They were not federal
officials. They were not electors at all."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-trump-defendants-seek-move-georgia-election-interference/story?id=103325364 2/7
2/4/24, 11:42 PM Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases moved to federal court - ABC News

David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathy Latham are seen in mugshots provided by the Fu... Show more
Fulton County Sheriff's Office

Tensions in the courtroom flared briefly after one of Shafer's attorneys, Craig
Gillen, accused prosecutors of targeting the electors over their support for
former President Trump, which he called a "sad state of affairs."

As a defendant, Gillen said, "if you're for Trump, buckle up. You're in the
danger zone."

Cross called the accusation "borderline offensive."

"That's an accusation that the state 100% rejects," the prosecutor said.

Attorneys for the three defendants laid out their arguments as to why their
elector plan was legal, and why it places them under federal law and qualifies
for removal.

"What bugs me is that these three have been labeled as 'fake' [electors],"
Gillen said. "They served pursuant to federal law."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-trump-defendants-seek-move-georgia-election-interference/story?id=103325364 3/7
2/4/24, 11:42 PM Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases moved to federal court - ABC News

MORE: Appeals court to hear arguments on Mark Meadows'

effort to pause lower court's ruling in Georgia election case

Gillen, in a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, made his case that authority

over the electors was turned over to the federal government after he said the
state of Georgia "missed" the "critical" Dec. 8, 2020, safe harbor deadline for
states to certify their results, by not resolving the pending litigation filed the
Trump campaign by that date.

"They did their duty," Gillen said of the so-called alternate electors.

"When the state misses the safe harbor date," added Holly Pierson, another
attorney for Shafer, "the power goes back Congress."

Pierson also pushed back on the state's claim that electors are not federal
officers.

"Our clients did what federal law allows them to do," Pierson said.

Judge Jones took the matter under advisement and said he would try to
issue a ruling as quickly as possible, but did not offer a timeframe.

The three defendants could face an uphill battle after Jones earlier this
month denied Meadows' bid to have his case removed. Clark is awaiting a
ruling on his motion, while Meadows is continuing his efforts on appeal.

Trump and 18 others were charged last month in a sweeping racketeering

indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential
election in the state of Georgia. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty to
the charges.

Shafer previously served as the chair of the Georgia Republican Party, while
Still is currently a Georgia state senator and Latham was the GOP chair for
Coffee County.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-trump-defendants-seek-move-georgia-election-interference/story?id=103325364 4/7
2/4/24, 11:42 PM Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases moved to federal court - ABC News

None of the three are appeared in court for their joint hearing, after each
submitted a waiver for their in-person appearances. Clark also did not
appear for his hearing, while Meadows testified at his own hearing for over
three hours.

Shafer, Still and Cathy Latham have argued in court filings that they qualify
for removal because they were acting as federal officials, under federal
authority, in their role as alternate electors.

"The role of presidential elector is a federal one -- created and directed by the
United States Constitution and Congress," the motion from Still's attorney
argued. "Thus, Mr. Still, acting as a presidential elector, was a federal officer."

But that argument has drawn sharp rebuke from the Fulton County DA's
office, who said the individuals "falsely impersonated" real electors and do
not qualify for removal.

"Defendants and his fellow fraudulent electors conspired in a scheme to

impersonate true Georgia presidential electors," the DA's office wrote in a
filing. "Their fiction is not entitled to recognition by the Court."

"'Contingent electors' are not presidential electors," the filing said, adding
that "there is no prize for first runner up in the Electoral college."

Judge Jones, in denying Meadows' bid to move his case to federal court, said
Meadows failed to show how the allegations in the indictment were related
to any of his official duties as Trump's chief of staff.

Instead, Jones said Meadows' actions were "taken on behalf of the Trump
campaign with an ultimate goal of affecting state election activities and
procedures."

Related Topics
Donald Trump

https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-trump-defendants-seek-move-georgia-election-interference/story?id=103325364 5/7
2/4/24, 11:42 PM Prosecutors push back on efforts by 3 Trump 'fake electors' to have their Georgia cases moved to federal court - ABC News

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EXHIBIT C
 Reporting Period:
Jan. 1,2021_- Dee. 31, 202)
FULTON COUNTY
INCOME AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REPORT
NameofCounty Official/Board MemberFan T. Willis
Titleof County Official/Board Member: District Attorney
A. Pursuant to Section 2-79ofthe Fulton County Code of Ethics, approved by the
Boardof Commissioners on February 4, 2004 (Item No.03-1531) and as
amended on August 4, 2004 (Item No. 04-0796), onorbefore April 15ofeach
calendar year, eachof the following individuals must file this Income and
Financial Disclosure Report with the Clerk to the Commission, which Report
shall cover the preceding calendar year:
1) All elected officials of Fulton County;
2) Judgesofthe Juvenile Court;
3) Judgesofthe Magistrate Court;
4) County Manager and Deputy County Managers;
5) All Department Heads, County Attomey, Clerk to the Commission, Division
Heads reporting to the County Manager and the Deputy Director of Zoning;
6) Membersofthe Board of Tax Assessors and all Property Appraisers;
7) Membersof the Community Zoning Board;
8) Membersofthe BoardofZoning Appeals; and
9) Membersofthe Board of Ethics.
(Attach additionalpages, if necessary).
B. For the Reporting Period stated above, identify by name and address, the source
ofeachofthe following, received or accrued during the preceding calendar year, by cach
‘person required to file such report and such person's spouse,ifany:
(1) Income for services rendered in the amountof$1,000.00 or more:

Self
Si Ross Law Fim 2675 Paces Ferry Rd. SE
ATL, GA 30339
Seif State Accounting Office | 200 Piedmont Ave Ste 1604 W
Tower; ATL, GA 30334
Fulton County T41 Pryor St; ATL, GA 30303
Self Rocheblave Consulting LLC| 1620 Cumberland Club RD SW
Marietta, GA 30008
SPOUSE NONE NONE
Page 1 of
5, Income and Financial Disclosure Report
 Reporting Period:
Jan. 1, 202) _- Dec. 31, Zoe)

(2) Each honorarium from a single source intheamount of $500.00

or more, unless otherwise reported under applicable state law:

SELF
i NONE NONE
SPOUSE NONE NONE

(3) Each gift or favor from a single prohibited source in the aggregate
amount of $100.00 or more:

For purposesofthis section, Giftsandfavors means anything ofvalue given by or

received from a prohibited source. Prohibited source means any person, business, or
entity that the involved officer or employee knows or should know:
(i) is seeking official action from the county: or
(ii) is seeking to do or is doing business with the county, or
(iii) represents a person who is seeking official action from the county or
‘who is seeking todoor is doing business with the county; or
(iv) has interests that may be affected by the performance or non-performance
ofofficial duties by the officer or employee; or
(+) isa registered lobbyist in accordance with state law.
CodeofEthics, Section 2-67(4)

Sis
SPOUSE NONE NONE

Page 2of5,Incomeand Financial Disclosure Report

 Reporting Period:
Jan. 1, Zoi -Dec. 31, Ze,

(4) Dividend incomeof $1,000.00 or more:

Som emorswe[Aw]
SPOUSE NONE NONE

C. Forthe Reporting Period stated above, identify by name, address and general
description:
(1) Any professional organization in which the person reporting is an officer,
director, partner, proprietor, or employee, or serves in an advisory
capacity, from which $1,000.00or more was received:
Name/Address: NONE Role/Title

General Description:

—
General Description:

aii
General Description:

Page 3of 5 Incomeand Financial Disclosure Report

Public Employee
4/15/2022 via email
 Redaction Date: 1/24/2024 9:35:45 AM
Redaction Log

Redaction Reasons by Exemption

Pages
Reason Description (Count)

Records that reveal a public employee’s

home address, home telephone number, day
and month of birth, social security number,
insurance or medical information, mother’s
birth name, credit card information, debit
card information, bank account information,
account number, utility account number, 4(1)
Public Employee password used to access accounts, financial
data or information other than
compensation by a government agency,
unlisted telephone
number, and identity of the public
employee’s immediate family members or
dependents; See O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(21)
 Reporting Period:
Jan 1, 3022 - Dec. 31, 202.2.
FULTON COUNTY
INCOME AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REPORT

Nameof County Official/Board Member;Fani T. Willis

TitleofCounty Official/Board Member: District Attorney

A. Pursuant to Section 2-79ofthe Fulton County Code ofEthics, approved by the

Board of Commissioners on February 4, 2004 (Item No. 03-1531) and as
amended on August 4, 2004 (Item No. 04-0796), on or before April 15ofeach
calendar year, eachofthe following individuals must file this Income and
Financial Disclosure Report with the Clerk to the Commission, whichReport
shall cover the preceding calendar year:
1) All elected officials of Fulton County;
2) Judgesofthe Juvenile Court;
3) Judges ofthe Magistrate Court;
4) County Manager and Deputy County Managers;
5) All Department Heads, County Attorney, Clerk to the Commission, Division
Heads reporting to the County Manager and the Deputy Directorof Zoning;
6) Membersofthe BoardofTax Assessors and all Property Appraisers;
7) Membersof the Community Zoning Board;
8) Membersof the BoardofZoning Appeals; and
9) Membersofthe Board of Ethics.

(Attach additional pages, ifnecessary).

B. For the Reporting Period stated above, identify by name and address, the source
of eachofthe following, received or accrued during the preceding calendar year, by each
person required to file such report and such person's spouse, if any:
(1) Income for services rendered in the amount of$1,000.00 or more:

Self State Accounting Office 200 Piedmont Ave. Ste 1604 W

Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
Self Fulton County T41 Pryor St
Atlanta, GA 30303

Page 1 of 5, Income and Financial Disclosure Report

 Reporting Period:
Jan. 1, 2022. -Dec. 31, 202.2

(2) Each honorarium from asingle source in the amountof $500.00

or more, unless otherwise reported under applicable state law:

SELF NONE

(3) Each gift or favor from a single prohibited source in the aggregate
amountof$100.00 or more:
For purposesofthis section, Gifts and favors means anythingofvalue given by or
received from a prohibited source. Prohibited source means any person, business, or
entity that the involved officer or employee knows or should know:
(i) is seeking official action from the county: or
(ii) is seeking to do or is doing business with the county, or
(i) representsa person who is seeking official action from the county or
whois seckingtodo or is doing business with the county; or
(i) has interests that may be affected by the performance or non-performance.
ofofficial duties by the officer or employee; or
(v) isaregistered lobbyist in accordance with state law.
CodeofEthics, Section 2-67(4)

Page 2 of5,Income and Financial Disclosure Report

 Reporting Period:
Jan. 1, 2022 Dec. 31, ze 22

“) Dividend incomeof$1,000.00 or more:

SELF NONE NONE

Cc For the Reporting Period stated above, identify by name, address andgeneral
description:
(1) Any professional organization in which the person reporting is an officer,
director, partner, proprietor, or employee, or serves in an advisory
capacity, from which $1,000.00 or more was received:

Name/Address:NONE Role/Title

‘General Description:

‘Name/Address: Role/Title

General Description:

‘Name/Address: Role/Title

General Description:

Page 3of5, Income and Financial Disclosure Report

Public Employee
 Reporting Period:
Jan. 1, 20022. Dec. 31, 2.022.

To be completed by County Official/Board Member:

TGS
Coil Liz I stat £Abency
F-Aanc,
Fim pay 4 County Official Title

piyu Dae 77/223

For Office Use Only:

Received by:_ Dates ee

Please submit to:

Officeofthe Clerk to the Commission
141 Pryor Street SW, Suite 10075
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
(404) 612-8200 Phone
(404) 730-8254 Fax
Clerk Commissioners@fultoncountyga gov

Page 5of5, Income and Financial DisclosureReport

 Redaction Date: 1/24/2024 9:34:35 AM
Redaction Log

Redaction Reasons by Exemption

Pages
Reason Description (Count)

Records that reveal a public employee’s

home address, home telephone number, day
and month of birth, social security number,
insurance or medical information, mother’s
birth name, credit card information, debit
card information, bank account information,
account number, utility account number, 4(1)
Public Employee password used to access accounts, financial
data or information other than
compensation by a government agency,
unlisted telephone
number, and identity of the public
employee’s immediate family members or
dependents; See O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(21)