The lawyer represents 10 Georgia Republicans who were part of a plan to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election and keep Donald J. Trump in power.
The lead prosecutor investigating election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia filed a motion on Tuesday accusing two defense lawyers in the case of misconduct. The prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., sought to have one of the lawyers, Kimberly B. Debrow, thrown off the proceedings.
Ms. Debrow represents 10 Georgia Republicans who were part of a bogus slate of electors for Mr. Trump under a broader plan to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election and keep him in power. According to the motion, some of the electors recently told prosecutors that Ms. Debrow and another attorney, Holly Pierson, had not informed them of offers of immunity in exchange for cooperation that were made last year.
The filing noted that Ms. Pierson had previously told the court that she and Ms. Debrow had spoken to their clients about potential immunity offers, but that “none of their clients were interested.”
Ms. Pierson represents David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party, who served as one of the fake electors. She and Ms. Debrow, who are being paid by the state party, had originally represented 11 electors until a judge forced them to separate Mr. Shafer from the other 10. In a statement, Ms. Pierson said that Ms. Willis’s allegations of misconduct were “entirely false,” adding that the court “already has documents in its possession” that prove it.
“Sadly, the D.A.’s office continues to seem more interested in media attention, trampling on the constitutional rights of innocent citizens and recklessly defaming its perceived opponents, than in the facts, the law or the truth,” Ms. Pierson’s statement said.
Ms. Willis’s office has spent more than two years investigating whether the former president and his allies illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election, and is expected to seek indictments next month. It was not immediately clear if the latest development could delay the timetable.
A special grand jury that heard evidence in the case for roughly seven months recommended more than a dozen people for indictments, and its forewoman strongly hinted in an interview with The New York Times this year that Mr. Trump was among them.
Central to the investigation are the steps that Trump allies and state party officials took to assemble a group of 16 pro-Trump electors in December 2020, who then submitted bogus slates of Electoral College votes for Mr. Trump in hopes of reversing the election’s outcome in the state. Mr. Trump was directly involved in such efforts, which also took place in a number of other swing states, and called the head of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, to seek her assistance, according to Ms. McDaniel’s testimony to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
At least one of the electors not represented by Ms. Debrow or Ms. Pierson has an immunity deal in place and has cooperated with the prosecution, people with knowledge of the case have said.
Ms. Willis’s new motion comes as other electors are seeking immunity deals, with indictment decisions looming. According to a legal analysis by the Brookings Institution, the fake electors could potentially face criminal liability for interfering with elections, among other charges.
Ms. Willis has indicated that she may bring broader state racketeering or conspiracy charges, which could apply to some of the bogus electors and a number of other people, including Mr. Trump, who were involved in several schemes to overturn the Georgia results.
The filing on Tuesday indicates that Ms. Willis’s office is still actively investigating, even though the special grand jury completed its work in January. During recent discussions with prosecutors, some of the fake electors represented by Ms. Debrow claimed that another elector, whom she also represents, broke the law, but that they themselves “were not party to these additional acts,” according to the new filing.
The fact that Ms. Debrow is representing people who are making accusations against another of her clients amounts to an untenable conflict, the district attorney’s office said.
“Ms. Debrow’s continued participation in this matter is fraught with conflicts of interest that rise to the level of her being disqualified from this case in its entirety,” the filing said.
During their recent discussions with some of the fake electors, investigators in Ms. Willis’s office were told “that no potential offer of immunity was ever brought” to those electors last year, despite assurances to the court by Ms. Pierson.
Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor and ethics specialist at Georgia State University who has been following the case closely, said that if the conduct described in the filing did take place, “that’s the kind of conduct that can get a lawyer disbarred.”
Ms. Debrow, in a statement late Tuesday, called the motion “baseless, false and offensive.”
“None of my clients have committed any crimes, and they necessarily have not implicated themselves or each other in any crimes,” she said.
Last year, Ms. Debrow and Ms. Pierson together represented the 10 electors and Mr. Shafer until Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court, who is handling the case, decided that Mr. Shafer needed separate counsel. Mr. Shafer has been informed that he is among the targets of the investigation who could face criminal charges, according to people with knowledge of the case.
Mr. Trump’s legal team, in a filing in March, assailed the special grand jury proceedings as “confusing, flawed and, at times, blatantly unconstitutional.”
The Atlanta case is not the only legal issue Mr. Trump faces. Earlier this month, the former president pleaded not guilty in Manhattan to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, in a case tied to his role in a hush-money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels. He is also under investigation by Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, for his role in the events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and retaining sensitive government documents at his home in Florida.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
