The first two of President Donald Trump’s co-defendants surrendered at the Fulton County jail on Tuesday – while a pair of defendants sought to move their cases to federal court – signs of how the sprawling case will progress in multiple directions this week.Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump and 18 others of participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia’s election results. All 19 co-defendants are expected to surrender ahead of a Friday deadline set by Willis when she unveiled last week’s sweeping indictment over attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.Trump, who agreed to a $200,000 bond on Monday, said he plans to turn himself in on Thursday.Here are the major developments Tuesday:Republican state chairman blames TrumpFormer Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, who led the state’s delegation of fake electors, said in a court filing that he and the other fake electors “acted at the direction of the incumbent President and other federal officials.”Shafer, a longtime member of the Georgia state Senate, played a key role in organizing the Trump campaign’s slate of fake electors in the state. He convened the 16 fake electors in the Georgia state capital in December 2020, where they signed a certificate falsely proclaiming that Trump won the state.Unlike Trump or some other defendants, however, Shafer has not been part of the federal government. His attorneys say what matters is he was given orders from the top. “Attorneys for the President and Mr. Shafer specifically instructed Mr. Shafer, verbally and in writing, that the Republican electors’ meeting and casting their ballots on December 14, 2020 was consistent with counsels’ advice and was necessary to preserve the presidential election contest,” the filing states.Shafer falsely claimed “thousands of people” voted illegally in the state while casting his vote as a fake elector on Dec. 14, 2020, according to a transcript of the secretive closed-door…
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