In Georgia Trump Investigation, Most Fake Electors Receive Immunity Deals

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More than half of the fraudulent electors in Georgia who convened in December 2020 to try to keep former President Donald J. Trump in power took an immunity deal in an election interference investigation there, according to a court filing Friday and knowledgeable person in the inquiry.

In addition, Craig A. Gillen, the former deputy independent counsel in the 1980s-era Iran Contra scandal, was hired to represent a fraudulent elector who could still face criminal charges, David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party. . Mr. is an expert. Gillen on charges involving racketeering, which are among the charges being weighed by Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney.

The office of Ms. Williss spent more than two years investigating whether the former president and his allies illegally interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia, which Mr. Trump narrowly lost to President Biden. A special grand jury that heard evidence in the case for about seven months recommended more than a dozen people for indictments, and its forewoman hinted strongly in an interview with The New York Times in February that Mr. Trump is among them.

In the end, Ms. Willis will decide which cases will be presented to a regular grand jury, which he said he will do after a new jury is seated in mid-July. His case focused in part on a plan to create a voter registry that was promised to Mr. Trump in the weeks after the 2020 election despite Mr. Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Lawyers for the voters argued they were just trying to keep Mr. Trump’s legal options open. Trump, even when they met on December 14, 2020, three votes proved that Mr. Bidens.

Even before any charges were announced, legal jockeying in the case was intense. In March, the lawyers of Mr. Trumps to overturn the special grand jury’s final report, most of which remains sealed.

In April, Ms. Willis to remove from the proceedings Kimberly B. Debrow, then a lawyer for 10 of the 16 Trump voters. According to a motion filed at the time by the office of Ms. Williss, some of the electors recently told prosecutors that Ms. Debrow and another attorney, Holly Pierson, did not disclose offers of immunity in exchange for cooperation made by prosecutors last year.

Ms. Debrow responded in his own filing Friday, in which he called the accusation without merit and said he fully informed his clients, in writing, of what he called general potential immunity offers.

Ms. Pierson, who was with Mr. Gillen represents Mr. Shafer, called the district attorneys’ statements completely false. Both Ms. Debrow and Ms. Pierson was paid by the state Republican Party.

Ms. also announced Debrows said in the new filing that eight of his clients were offered safety deals and all of them accepted. At least one additional elector not represented by Ms. Debrow also has a settlement in place, according to people with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity while the investigation is ongoing.

said Ms. Debrow said in his filing that the two clients were not offered immunity deals and now have new attorneys, though he did not name the clients. A recent filing from Cathy Latham, a fake elector for Mr. Trump who is the head of the Republican Party in rural Coffee County, Ga., revealed that she now has her own representation.

Performed by Ms. Latham’s key role in efforts by Trump allies to access voter data in his county after the 2020 election is another sticking point in the investigation.

While all of the voter fraud has long been identified by prosecutors as potential targets for criminal charges, three are considered particularly vulnerable by those with knowledge of the investigation: Mr. Shafer, Ms. Latham and Shawn Still, a Georgia state senator who filed and later withdrew a lawsuit related to the Coffee County vote count.

Mr. still did not immediately respond. in a request for comment.

Ms. declined to comment. Williss office. His office alleged in a filing last month that some of Trump’s electors had accused him of yet another illegal behavior.

But in her motion, Ms. Debrow that the allegation is false. He added that the court did not need to take defensive words for the fact that none of the voters reported themselves or each of these interviews was recorded.

It will be left to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert CI McBurney, who is presiding over the inquiry, to sort out the competing motions.

Sean Keenan contributed reporting from Atlanta.

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