Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office must submit a new motion to quash a request from Harrison Floyd, who subpoenaed the government agency for information related to the 2020 election. Floyd’s attorney claims Georgia’s state agencies have information that will prove the 2020 elections in Fulton County and Georgia were fraudulent, which in turn will confirm his client’s innocence at trial.
Floyd is the former director of Black Voices for Trump, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis included him in her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump. She claims he tried to coerce a false confession from a Georgia election worker whom former Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani accused of counting fraudulent ballots.
Defense attorney Christopher Kachouroff said he believes Georgia’s state agencies, including the Secretary of State of Georgia, Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, and the Superior Court of Fulton County’s Clerk, have documents that could prove the confession he sought was truthful.
Kachouroff said he intends to prove the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, was stolen at trial, or at least that Floyd had good reason to believe it was. If President Joe Biden was not the legitimate winner, or if Floyd was operating under the genuine belief that there was sufficient election fraud to sway the election, Kachouroff argued his participation in the conspiracy alleged by District Attorney Fani Willis could not have been criminal in nature.
Attorney Jack Sharman, who represents the secretary of state’s office, told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee that “little” if “anything” in the documents is relevant to Floyd’s intent in 2020 and asserted the “documents he didn’t have, he didn’t know about, aren’t going to have any effect” when determining whether he sought to break the law.
Kachouroff said Floyd intends to mount a defense claiming “President Trump indeed won the election and we can prove it with respect to Fulton County and the State of Georgia,” and the language used in Willis’ indictment means state agencies should comply with the subpoenas.
Kachouroff maintained that any documents, including ballots, suggesting the election results were false would be enough to quash the indictment. If the evidence proved Biden won on his own merits, Kachouroff argued “it sets the defense up for a mistake of fact,” in which Floyd could say he was acting in the good faith belief the election was stolen and not trying to criminally overturn legitimate election results by obtaining a false confession.
Ultimately, while he intends to prove the election was stolen, Kachouroff conceded that “this case is not about whether you or I think that President Trump won or lost the election” but “what Mr. Floyd believed at the time.”
Chad Alexis, who represents both the Fulton County Clerk of Courts and the Fulton County Board of Elections, then argued that any data held by Georgia’s government agencies would not impact a mistake of fact argument because no court has heard a case that resulted in the overturning of a prior election.
“The elections, by all official accounts, have been decided, said Alexis. “There is no court that I know of that has invalidated those results, so Mr. Floyd is free to make his mistake of fact argument right now.”
Alexis also said Floyd’s request involves the personal information of registered voters, which McAfee agreed was a “red flag.” However, Floyd’s attorney specified they are no longer requesting some of the information they previously requested, which may limit the private information in question.
“Our experts don’t care who voted,” Kachouroff said. “They’re looking to see what the result actually was.”
McAfee questioned whether the personally identifying information could be separated from the rest of the vote information, though Kachouroff maintained they could be excluded.
Kachouroff indicated Floyd is willing to pay for the secretary of state’s office and other agencies to produce the materials but argued it should not be required because Willis repeatedly made factual claims about the 2020 election in her indictment.
McAfee ultimately asked each side to clarify their requests and objections in new filings. Kachouroff indicated Floyd’s new filing will be ready on November 6, and McAfee instructed the secretary of state’s office to have its new motion to quash the subpoena submitted by November 9.
Floyd is the second defendant to note Willis’ repeated assertions about the 2020 election. On Wednesday, attorneys for Jeffrey Clark noted Willis “ritualistically” repeated the phrase “despite the fact that … Trump lost” at least 15 times in her August indictment.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News, and also reports for The Tennessee Star and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
