Statement of Bob Driscoll, Attorney for David Shafer and Shawn Still of the Georgia Republican Party
Read Time: 2 minsI represent David Shafer, Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and Shawn Still, both 2020 Republican nominees for Presidential Elector in Georgia.
There has been sensational and largely inaccurate media coverage regarding a meeting in Georgia of the Republican nominees for Presidential Elector on December 14, 2020. The purpose of this statement is to respond to that coverage and clarify the events of that day.
On December 4, 2020, then-President Trump, his campaign committee, and Chairman Shafer filed a petition in the Superior Court of Fulton County contesting the results of the General Election in Georgia for President of the United States (Trump v. Raffensperger). Although a request for an expedited hearing was pending, one had not been scheduled by the Court as of December 14, 2020, the date Presidential Electors are constitutionally required to meet and cast their votes.
Acting on the advice of counsel in the election contest, Chairman Shafer convened the Republican nominees for Presidential Elector to cast their votes for President and Vice President for the sole purpose of preserving a remedy in the event the lawsuit succeeded.
There was nothing secret or surreptitious about the meeting: The Republican nominees had an open meeting at the Georgia State Capitol. Members of the press and the public were in attendance. Chairman Shafer made clear, in a statement at the start of that meeting, and in a public statement immediately afterward, that he and the other Republican Electors were acting provisionally to protect a remedy in the event President Trump ultimately succeeded in the pending contest. Chairman Shafer’s statements to that effect were reported by the media in news coverage that day.
The election-related lawsuit pending at the time of the meeting of the Presidential Electors was never decided, as the case was not assigned to a judge eligible to hear it and scheduled for a hearing until January 8, 2021 – more than two weeks after the 20-day statutory deadline for election contests to be decided and two days after Congress met to count and certify the votes of the Electoral College, at which point the lawsuit, and thus the possible need for provisional Presidential Electors, was moot.
Although we believe the subpoena issued by the Select Committee is unenforceable under House Rules and placed objections in the record as to the legality of the proceedings, Chairman Shafer and Mr. Still were happy to help the Committee understand the events of December 14, 2020 and correct errors in the renewed media coverage of those events. Their depositions have been closed and they are no longer under subpoena.