ATLANTA (CN) — Republican state Senator Shawn Still argued Wednesday that the charges accusing him of knowingly and willfully joining a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump should be dismissed due to what he says are deficiencies in the indictment brought in August.
Still, formerly Georgia’s Republican Party finance chairman, was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate stating Trump had won the state in the 2020 election and declared themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” presidential electors in an elector nominee meeting Dec. 14, 2020.
The senator faces seven counts, including a racketeering charge and felony counts of impersonating a public officer, forgery, attempting to submit false documents and false statements and writings — all stemming from the elector meeting. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Still’s attorney Thomas Bever of Smith, Gambrell & Russell said Wednesday the December 2020 meeting was only 30 minutes long and was publicly filmed, so it was clear nothing was being hidden.
“I’ve never seen fraud perpetrated in broad daylight,” Bever said.
He added that Still was told to attend the meeting to be informed of a lawsuit filed by Trump’s attorneys challenging the state’s election results and requesting an audit. Still claims he was told the ballots were only to be used if the lawsuit was successful and that if he didn’t sign at that moment, the lawsuit would become moot.
Bever argued that Still was not impersonating a public officer as prosecutors claim in the indictment because he was nominated as a Republican elector by the state’s Republican party.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee noted there was a distinction between Still being a Republican elector and the actual accepted presidential electors. He made a hypothetical comparison of an Atlanta police officer being indicted for impersonating a Dekalb County police officer.
“Essentially what your defense is coming in here and saying is that he was an APD officer the whole time so, that counts invalid,” McAfee told Still’s attorneys. “He was an elected and qualified elector, but the states indicted him for being another kind of elected and qualified elector, which he was not. How does that not line up here?”
Bever added that the law doesn’t provide a clear definition of what a “public officer” is. He cited precedent that found a grand juror is not a public officer, arguing that both a grand juror and an elector lack the “element of tenure and duration” which must exist in order to qualify as a public officer.
Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Will Wooten argued the court should look at what the term means to a “person of ordinary intelligence.”
“Public officer is not some complex, arcane term. It’s a person who holds a public office. It’s not complicated,” said Wooten.
The definition of “documents” as related to the filing false documents charge is also ambiguous, argued Still. Bever said that if the statue meant all documents, it wouldn’t include “surplus language” saying they shall not be limited to liens, titles, instruments, relating to a security interest, or title to real property.
The senator was first elected to public office in 2022 and is currently serving his first term.
After the release of the indictment, Georgia’s Republican Governor, Brian Kemp, appointed a three-person panel to determine if Still should be temporarily removed from office while the case is pending. The panel — consisting of Attorney General Chris Carr, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch and Republican state House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration — declined to recommend Still’s suspension.
In January, Still filed a motion opposing prosecutors’ proposed August 4, 2024, trial date, though that date is unlikely to become approved, given the delays from several pretrial motions and a pending appeal against the judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain the head prosecutor.
McAfee previously struck down six counts of the indictment against Trump, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attorney Charles Eastman, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Ray Smith and Bob Cheeley in March, stating they lacked sufficient detail.
Four of the 18 original defendants, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Scott Hall and Kenneth Chesebro, have reached plea deals with Fulton County prosecutors.