Trump Co-Defendant’s Quest to Relitigate 2020 Election Continues at Georgia Hearing

Trump Co-Defendant’s Quest to Relitigate 2020 Election Continues at Georgia Hearing

Harrison Floyd’s voluminous subpoenas to Georgia state agencies for records of the 2020 presidential election were the focal point of Friday’s hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee

Published |Updated

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Steve Reilly

Harrison Floyd listens during a hearing before Judge Scott McAfee in the 2020 Georgia election interference case at the Fulton County Courthouse on Nov. 21, 2023 in Atlanta. Dennis Byron-Pool/Getty Images

ATLANTA — A Georgia judge mediated negotiations on Friday between state agencies and a co-defendant of Donald Trump who is seeking to find records that cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Harrison Floyd’s voluminous subpoenas to Georgia state agencies for records of the 2020 presidential election were the focal point of the afternoon hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.

The 90-minute hearing ended with McAfee directing the parties to “continue their conversations.”

“I’m trying to encourage the parties to find middle ground here,” he said.

McAfee asked Floyd’s legal team to amend his subpoenas by Feb. 2, and more narrowly tailor their time estimates.

“I think more of an exchange of information is going to reduce a lot of time on the back end of what needs to happen,” McAfee told Floyd’s attorneys.

McAfee, who appeared visibly annoyed at times, and at one point noted “this could have been an email,” encouraged the parties to find a resolution without a need for a judge’s order.

Floyd’s attorney Chris Kachouroff at one point offered to purchase a specialized scanner that would drastically reduce the man-hours required to scan specific documents that he requested — a solution McAfee welcomed.

“I’ll want it back,” Kachouroff said.

“We’ll see about that,” McAfee quipped back.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is seen on the bench as Jenna Ellis pleads guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Photo by John Bazemore / POOL / AFP)

Friday’s hearing before McAfee was the second to focus on motions by state and local government agencies to quash Floyd’s subpoenas demanding extensive records related to the 2020 election, such as ballot images, absentee ballot envelopes, hard drives and more.

Floyd, the former leader of “Black Voices for Trump,” has pleaded not guilty for his role in the sweeping election-racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

As he prepares his defense, his lawyers have signaled they may challenge the premise in the state felony case that those involved in the alleged conspiracy knew the election wasn’t stolen, and that Trump lost.

In this handout provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, John Eastman, former lawyer to former U.S. President Donald Trump poses for his booking photo on Aug. 22, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images)

Separately, Friday’s hearing began with the first courtroom appearance of Trump co-defendant John Eastman and his attorney Buddy Parker. Eastman, in town for a nearby fundraiser on Saturday, said he wanted to attend the hearing to “get a feel” for the courtroom. He also stayed for part of the hearing for Floyd’s subpoenas.

Eastman, like several other co-defendants, is trying to challenge the racketeering charge against him arguing that the original indictment is flawed or insufficient. Parker adopted many of the arguments previously heard before the court, including during last Friday’s multi-part session before McAfee.

“The principle two issues raised in our special demurrer …is that the indictment does not describe the connections or relationships among the defendants … and it does not describe how the members of the enterprise function as a continual unit,” Parker said.

McAfee challenged Parker to point to examples of indictments that would model the sufficiency Parker was looking for, which Parker said he had not looked for.

Responding to Parker’s argument that Fulton County has to provide more detail in the indictment, John Floyd, the state’s RICO expert, said that’s a requirement that the courts have rejected.

What’s more, Floyd pointed out that the indictment details Eastman’s interactions and communications with a number of indicted and unindicted co-conspirators. Floyd also cited examples of sufficient indictments that are looked at by Georgia courts as good models, and said those were the sufficiency standards the prosecutors looked to.

Separately, Eastman raised concerns over whether evidence from when the FBI seized his cellphone in New Mexico was in the state’s hands, because it did not appear to be in discovery materials.

Special prosecutor Nathan Wade said the state did not have such materials, but would disclose them if they were to obtain them.