Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has asked a federal court in Georgia to take control of the criminal charges filed against him by Fulton County District Attorney Willis, citing his former status as a federal employee.
In a notice to the court filed late on Tuesday, attorneys for Mr Meadows, who a Fulton County grand jury charged with a single racketeering count and another sole count of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, invoked a rarely used section of federal law which allows civil and “criminal prosecution . . . commenced in a State court . . . against or directed to” a federal official, “in an official or individual capacity, for or relating to any act under color of [his] office” to be tried in federal court.
The ex-White House chief of staff’s attorneys said the charges against him, which arose out of his and former president Donald Trump’s efforts to keep him in office against the will of voters by pressing Georgia officials to overturn the election results after Mr Trump lost there to Joe Biden, including during a phone call on which Mr Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” non-existent votes and reverse the election results.
Mr Meadows, who the indictment alleges to have participated in a criminal enterprise by arranging the phone call between the then-president and Mr Raffensperger, wants the federal court to take jurisdiction over the charges so they can be dismissed under the US constitution’s supremacy clause.
“Mr Meadows has the right to remove this matter. The conduct giving rise to the charges in the indictment all occurred during his tenure and as part of his service as Chief of Staff,” his lawyers said.
They also argued that nothing the ex-chief of staff has been accused of us in and of itself a crime.
“Nothing Mr Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President. One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things,” they wrote, adding later that the charges against him are “precisely the kind of state interference in a federal official’s duties that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits”.
It’s unclear whether the former White House aide will be successful, but it is expected that other defendants in the case — including Mr Trump — will attempt the same gambit. Some legal experts have argued that it would be inappropriate for courts to grant such a request because being a candidate for election is not part of any official’s public duties.
