Shafer takes shot at Kemp with party leaders based on incomplete story

Multiple sources within the Georgia GOP have let us know about a couple of developments that, frankly, have us scratching our heads over here.

We have been told that recently the Chairman of the Georgia GOP, David Shafer, held a call with party officials and made the claim that he could prove fraud in the 2020 election. He told the party officials that he had presented that evidence to Governor Kemp and that the Governor had simply refused to investigate. The outrage among these officials was immediate. If it was true, we should all be outraged.

Only, we are learning, that story was somewhat incomplete at best. At. Best. It was down right false at worst, and likely designed to sow seeds of discontent with the Governor’s leadership among party officials.

It turns out that the claims that Mr. Shafer had brought to the attention of the Kemp Administration involved ballot harvesting and geolocations of cell phones. Shafer provided the GBI with a spreadsheet of some 279 cell phones that, as alleged, kept showing up to ballot drop boxes over and over again. This is the type of allegation that can be verified, and frankly must be verified before taking further action. If you are reading this, I feel it is important to highlight the word, “allegedly.” Please do not repeat these allegations on social media as true because it has not been verified. And the reason it hasn’t been verified lays in Mr. Shafer’s lap.

We get warrants before the government starts pulling private cell phone data for American Citizens. And just because someone accuses you of a crime doesn’t mean that the police have probable cause to pull your private information. There must be some sort of corroborating evidence, like a witness.

And it appears that Mr. Shafer has a witness because he told the GBI that there was a “source” who could validate the claims of ballot harvesting. Only one thing, Shafer won’t name them to the GBI.

So this means one of two things are true: 1. There is no source and Mr. Shafer made it up, or 2. Mr. Shafer is harboring a potential criminal and refuses to report the identity of his source to investigators. I cannot figure out which of these two things are worse. Either way, the GBI is willing to investigate if Mr. Shafer will give them what they are asking for.

President Trump has made his intentions clear that he wants to see the Governor replaced, with Stacey Abrams if necessary, and the Chairman of the Georgia GOP seems all too willing to carry that toxic water. But at what lengths, and at what cost? This path will lead to GOP losses on a massive scale. Herschel Walker and even Marjorie Taylor Green have made public statements of concern that continuing to suppress Republican turnout in the next election cycle can have catastrophic consequences. And I believe that Mr. Shafer has some explaining to do with those party officials he misled into believing that the Governor had turned his back on claims of fraud.

And then he needs to explain to the rest of us why he won’t name the source.

Here’s the memo from the GBI to the GOP: