Much of the evidence compiled against President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the criminal 2020 election interference case in Fulton County can be publicly revealed for the first time.
In a ruling this week, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wiped out an order he issued in November 2023, which had prevented Trump and his 18 co-defendants from publicly disclosing evidence against them that prosecutors deemed to be sensitive.
The judge said there’s no need to keep that information secret now that the case has ended.
“The smooth functioning of the discovery process and shielding of potential jurors from inadmissible evidence are no longer valid concerns,” he wrote.
McAfee’s decision Wednesday was prompted by defendant David Shafer, former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. He asked the judge in late December to modify the 2023 protective order so he could publicly reveal some of the transcribed testimony before the special purpose grand jury convened in the case.
The judge went one further, terminating the 2023 order entirely.
“As Mr. Shafer highlights, the justifications for the protective order no longer exist,” he said.
On Thursday, Shafer publicly filed in court almost 100 pages of transcribed testimony before the special purpose grand jury from July 26, 2022. He said his prosecution “resulted in complete disruption” of his work and caused him “immense pain and suffering.”
Craig Gillen, Shafer’s lead attorney in the case, said it is not his practice to comment on litigation.
The state, through Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia Executive Director Pete Skandalakis, took no position on whether the 2023 order should remain in place, McAfee noted Wednesday.
Skandalakis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he doesn’t think this week’s ruling changes how he would publicly disclose the previously protected evidence. He said that information is still subject to request under Georgia’s Open Records Act.
“We would comply with the law and redact what (the public) is not entitled to,” he said.
Part of the 2023 protective order instructed the defendants to destroy all sensitive evidence they had received from prosecutors within 30 days of the case ending. But in his ruling Wednesday, McAfee said that requirement is unnecessary because the case concluded without any remaining defendants.
The evidence filed in court Thursday by Shafer comprised the testimony of Ken Carroll, a longtime member of the Georgia Republican Party and one of 16 Republican electors who swore in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia that it had been won by Trump.
Carroll told the special purpose grand jury that he had received a call from Shafer in December 2020, telling him the president needed their help. He said he believed at the time that Trump won the previous month’s election and needed the Republican electors’ support to preserve his rights in court.
“There was a feeling of we need to go ahead and get this done,” Carroll testified, adding he believes fraud is widespread in Georgia elections and has been for decades.
“I absolutely believe there was voter fraud,” Carroll testified about the 2020 election. “I do not know that there was enough voter fraud to overturn an election.”
The criminal racketeering case against Trump and his supporters went sideways in early 2024, when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was accused of having an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a private attorney she had hired to work on the case.
That line of inquiry led to the removal of Willis and her office from the prosecution, which no other district attorneys in the state wanted to take. In the end, Skandalakis dropped the charges, saying the alleged criminal conduct amounted to more of a federal, not state, case.
Trump and his allies were indicted in August 2023. The 41-count, 98-page indictment said they refused to accept the fact that Trump lost in the polls.
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Now, some of the defendants are seeking to recover their attorney fees and litigation costs from Willis’ office. Trump alone wants more than $6.2 million.
The state Legislature created a pathway last year for criminal defendants to recover expenses associated with their defense when prosecutors are dismissed for misconduct and all charges are dropped. The law was designed with the Trump case in mind, according to supporters and opponents alike.
Willis’ office is pushing back, saying in a recent court filing the new law is riddled with problems, including the financial burden it unfairly exposes taxpayers to.
The DA’s office also told the court the election interference case was “neither arbitrary nor political.”
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