ATLANTA — UPDATE:
Three Georgia Republicans who signed Electoral College documents claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election are pushing forward with bids to move their cases to federal court.
Georgia Sen. Shawn Still, Cathy Latham, and David Shafer filed notices of appeal Friday. They will take their arguments to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones ruled against the three last week. Jones said their cases had to stay in Fulton County because the trio aren't federal officials.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is also trying to get his case moved to federal court. He previously filed an appeal with the Eleventh Circuit.
Still, Latham and Safer were indicted alongside former President Donald Trump for criminally interfering in the 2020 election.
ORIGINAL:
Three Georgia Republicans who signed Electoral College documents claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election can't be tried in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones ruled Friday that Cathy Latham, Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still and David Shafer were not acting as federal officials when they met Dec. 14, 2020, to cast presidential elector ballots on behalf of Trump.
"The Court ultimately concludes that (the electors were) not federal officers when (they) acted as a Republican-nominated presidential elector because presidential electors are not federal officers," a ruling stated.
The three Republicans didn't appear at a hearing last week regarding their request. Their attorneys argued they passed the three-condition test needed to move their case out of Fulton County Superior Court because they were federal officials who acted under the asserted authority of their office.
Craig Gillen, an attorney for Shafer, argued that the elector role is spelled out in the U.S. Constitution and the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
The Democratic and Republican presidential electors were "contingent" until Congress made its final ruling because an election challenge filed by Trump and Shafer hadn't been resolved by Dec. 8, 2020 — the so-called "Safe Harbor" date, Gillen asserted.
Further, Gillen and other attorneys for the electors argued that state law covered only the appointment process of electors. Federal law oversees the casting of Electoral College ballots, and the governor's certification is not the final word in the process. They said that is the first step before an election can be challenged.
Special prosecutor Anna Cross rejected those arguments, calling them "wrong. Nonsense. Unsupported. Fantasy." The DA's Office said the electors were indeed "fake" who acted to further the goals of the Trump campaign.
Cross also argued that if an election challenge was successful, the proper remedy would be a new election — not handing the victory to Trump.
Latham, the former Coffee County GOP chair, also allegedly played a key role in the copying of sensitive election data and software in Coffee County. She faces 11 charges tied to both events.
Still, the only current elected official indicted in the case, faces seven charges, including impersonating a public officer and forgery. He was elected to office following his alleged role in this plot.
Shafer, the former head of the Georgia Republican Party, faces eight charges, including impersonating a public officer and a count of false statements and writings. Shafer led the meeting of Trump electors at the Georgia State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020.
The three could appeal the decisions.
Friday's decision comes hours after Jones rejected former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark's bid to remove his case to federal court. Jones also ruled earlier this month that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows couldn't head to federal court.
Meadows appealed his ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. No ruling has been issued on the appeal.
Trump's attorney said Thursday that the former president would not try to take his case to federal court.