GOP Georgia chair: Trump’s lawyers advised me to stand as fake elector

David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, now claims that his plot to stand as a fake elector should not be criminally charged because he was acting on the advice of former President Donald Trump's legal team, reported CNN on Monday.

"Specifically, Shafer’s attorneys say their client was relying on 'repeated and detailed advice of legal counsel' when he organized a group of 'contingent' electors from Georgia and served as one himself, thus 'eliminating any possibility of criminal intent or liability,' according to a copy of the May 5 letter," reported Zachary Cohen and Sara Murray. "The letter, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, comes as Willis and her team of prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are planning to make an announcement on possible charges against Trump or his allies later this summer."

This comes after reporting last week that eight of the 16 fake electors have accepted immunity deals from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

"Shafer, who sources previously told CNN could be among those indicted when Willis makes her charging announcements, has come under scrutiny for his role in the effort to put forward alternate slates of electors to block the certification of the 2020 presidential vote," said the report. "In their letter to Willis’s office, Shafer’s lawyers say he was 'given very direct, detailed legal advice on the procedure he should follow, and he followed those instructions to the letter ... I believe that any fair-minded person, with possession of all the facts, would conclude that Mr. Shafer and the other presidential elector nominees acted lawfully and appropriately.'"

The Fulton County District Attorney's office has run a broad investigation of the plot to interfere in the certification of the 2020 election results in Georgia, which saw the state vote Democratic for president for the first time since the 1990s. Among the issues scrutinized in the probe is Trump's phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger demanding he "find" extra votes to declare him the winner.

Willis has said that a decision over who to charge, potentially including Trump himself, could come at some point this summer.