FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A judge ruled Wednesday that David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, cannot be represented by the same lawyers as 10 other people who participated in the 2020 "alternate" electors scheme in the ongoing Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigation into efforts to interfere in the election that year.
Judge Robert C. I. McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury investigation brought by District Attorney Fani Willis, said in a ruling that Shafer's "role in establishing and convening the slate of alternate electors," as well as his organizing role in legal and rhetorical challenges to the election results, sets him apart from the others who joined in the scheme.
Shafer was "not just another alternate elector," McBurney wrote, citing his "communications with other key players in the District Attorney's investigation and role in other post-election efforts to call into question the validity of the official vote count in Georgia."
This, according to the judge, creates an "imbalance in exposure" to the investigation for Shafer relative to the other 10 "alternate" electors who have been informed they are targets of the investigation.
The "alternate" electors scheme involved 16 individuals who submitted an illegitimate slate of Electoral College votes for Trump in 2020.
Lawyers for the group have argued it was submitted only with the intent of being recognized in the event one of the legal challenges by Trump or his allies actually succeeded in overturning Georgia's result in favor of Joe Biden. They have maintained nothing illegal was done by the group.
Judge McBurney's ruling takes no position on the legality of the scheme - he is only overseeing the special grand jury, which will submit a report with its findings and recommendations at the end of its investigation, but cannot issue criminal indictments. But he drew a qualitative difference between Shafer's participation and that of the others.
"His fate with the special purpose grand jury (and beyond) is not tethered to the other ten electors in the same manner in which those ten find themselves connected," McBurney wrote.
He said that the two attorneys who have been representing all 11 may only represent Shafer individually or the 10 others together, "but not both."
Special grand jury proceedings are secret, but some related public court filings have shed light on the scope of the investigation.
From the start Willis has said she was interested in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger. The Republican president urged the state's top elections official to "find" the votes needed to reverse his narrow loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.
It has also become clear that she is interested in several other areas, including the "alternate" electors scheme.
Once its investigation is complete, a special grand jury can recommend action, but it remains up to the district attorney to decide whether to then seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.