Of the 16 fake electors under investigation in Georgia for taking part in a scheme to keep President Donald Trump in office in 2020, eight have accepted immunity deals from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, according to a brief filed on Friday by the electors’ lawyer, Kimberly Debrow.
In early April, Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor advising the Georgia grand jury appointed to investigate Trump’s election meddling efforts, gave Debrow immunity offers for eight of the ten electors she represented (in total, 16 Republicans took part in the scheme). The two who did not receive offers decided to obtain individual counsel. The filing does not name which of the 16 electors were offered immunity deals.
Friday’s filing comes in response to a motion Willis submitted in April seeking to have Debrow disqualified from the case. Prosecutors say that Debrow didn’t inform her clients of an immunity offer last summer, and that some of the electors she represents have incriminated each other in interviews with prosecutors. Willis called Debrow’s continued representation of the group of electors an “impracticable and ethical mess.”
Debrow shot back in Friday’s filing, calling the DA’s motion “reckless, frivolous, offensive, and completely without merit.” She claimed that the DA only floated “highly generalized, non-individualized ‘offers to offer’ potential immunity” last summer and that her clients were informed of this possibility. Debrow alleged that the DA’s office “knew” their representation of that summer’s immunity conversations was “false” when they filed the April motion. She also maintained that all ten of her current and former clients “remain united in their innocence.”
Willis’s office opened an inquiry into Trump and his allies’ election meddling in February 2021, and in May 2022 convened a special grand jury with the power to subpoena witnesses. In addition to investigating the fake elector scheme, the grand jury also looked into Trump’s demand that George Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “find 11,780 votes.” Over seven months of work, the grand jury interviewed 75 people, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
In February, portions of the grand jury report were made public. The report recommended more than a dozen people for indictments, though it declined to name any names. However, in an interview with The New York Times, the grand jury’s forewoman strongly hinted that Trump was among them. We won’t know for sure until Willis comes out with the charges, after which the full report will be made public. In late April, Willis said her office is planning on announcing charging decisions “in the near future,” potentially as soon as July.
Source: vanityfair
