Fake Georgia Elector Throws Trump And His Lawyers Under The Bus

David Shafer, the chair of the Georgia Republican Party who also happens to be one of the fake electors under investigation from the 2020 election, is trying to claim that he can't be indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis because he was only acting on the (bad) legal advice that Trump's lawyers gave him. And because he had no reason to doubt that legal advice, there was no "intent" to break the law. That's a pretty neat idea, but it isn't exactly an airtight defense, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

As if Donald Trump's legal problems in the state of New York aren't bad enough. Let's not forget that he is facing some potentially damaging charges in the state of Georgia. We are expecting indictments to come down probably within the next month or two from Fulton County attorney, uh, district Attorney Fanny Willis. And there's been quite a lot of developments recently in that particular investigation. Most notably the fact, of course, as I discussed earlier this week, that eight of the fake electors have accepted immunity deals and one of the fake electors this week through Donald Trump's own attorneys under the bus in trying to prevent himself from being indicted. That individual happens to be David Schaffer, who coincidentally is actually the chair of the Republican Party of the State of Georgia. Mr. Schaffer this week filed a letter with the Fulton County District Attorney claiming that he can't possibly be indicted even though he hasn't been because he was just acting on the legal advice of Donald Trump's lawyers, and therefore everything he did was totally legal because lawyers told him he could do it.

Let me read this. In their letter to Willis's office, Schaffer's lawyers said 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. Schaffer and other presidential elector nominees acted lawfully and appropriate appropriately. And of course, they added that this is, uh, eliminating any possibility of criminal intent or liability because he had advice from lawyers. Now, it's an interesting argument and it's an argument that typically would hold up in court under different circumstances. See, here's the thing. If I hire a lawyer and I am paying that lawyer for their representation, then they become my lawyer. If that lawyer gives me bad advice that I take a court typically would not hold you or me in this instance, liable for following the bad advice from my lawyer. Now you notice how I'm stressing the word my lawyer that I paid for. That's when this bad advice from the lawyer isn't a thing you would likely be prosecuted for. Turns out though, Mr. Schaffer did not hire these lawyers. They weren't his legal counsel. They weren't his legal

Representatives. They were not people that he was paying to give him legal advice. They just happened to be people telling him to do things. That also happened to be lawyers. Your defense of, I'm just following the advice of counsel, cannot stand because that is not your counsel. Do you see how that works, folks? Do you see the difference between Schaeffer's story and the hypothetical that I told you? He didn't pay these people, they had no responsibility to him as a client at all. If somebody who happens to be a lawyer tells you to do something and then that something turns out to be illegal, you can't argue. But Your Honor, the lawyer told me I could do it. Oh, was it your lawyer? No, it's just somebody who went to law school. Cool. Then you can still be indicted and that is likely what we're gonna be dealing with with Mr. Schaffer. It's a clever defense, but it's definitely not one that is going to hold up in court.