Two of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in Georgia on Monday asked a judge to move the case to federal court.
Mr. Clark, Mr. Shafer, and Mr. Meadows are among 18 people charged alongside President Trump in an indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis concerning their alleged efforts to dispute the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
All three argue that their charges should be moved because they were acting in their official capacity as federal officers, and will claim federal defenses.
In court documents dated Aug. 21 and filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Mr. Clark’s attorneys arguing that their client has “immunities and defenses arising under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, as well as under federal immunity law” and that there there is a “lack of state court jurisdiction over federal officer conduct.”
Mr. Clark was a high-ranking U.S. Justice Department official “at all relevant times applicable to the Fulton County Action” and the allegations made against him “relate directly to his work at the Justice Department as well as with the former President of the United States,” his attorneys wrote.
“Mr. Clark’s federal officer status is undeniable,” they continued. “He is plainly entitled to see any case against him related to his service in the Executive Branch of the United States government resolved” in federal court, they added.
Mr. Shafer’s attorneys argued that his actions stem “directly from his service as a Presidential Elector nominee acting under the authority of the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act.”
Separately, attorneys for Mr. Clark requested a pause to the prosecution process in Fulton County while they wait to see the outcome of the motion to move the case to federal court.
This, they said, will ensure Mr. Clark “would not need to be put [in] the choice of making rushed travel arrangements to fly into Atlanta” to surrender to authorities or risk “being labeled a fugitive.”
Ms. Willis has given the defendants listed in the indictment until noon on Aug. 25 to surrender voluntarily at the county jail.
Multi-State Criminal Conspiracy ‘Non-Existent’
“The State’s assertions that Mr. Clark participated in a non-existent, multi-state criminal conspiracy are scurrilous. We trust he will be cleared of the charges advanced by District Attorney Fani Willis,” Mr. Clark’s lawyers wrote.“We have faith that the federal courts will ultimately recognize this Action for what it is—a naked attempt to destroy Mr. Clark by ‘lawfare,’ cost him millions in legal fees, impair his work in the conservative legal community at the Center for Renewing America in Washington, D.C., and tarnish his previously stellar reputation,” they added.
“That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” the indictment states.
It charges Mr. Clark with one count of attempting to commit false statements and writings.
Mr. Clark is also charged with one count of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act), as are the other 18 defendants.
The indictment states that on or around Dec. 28, Mr. Clark sent an e-mail to Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and “requested authorization to send said false writing and document to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives David Ralston, and President Pro Tempore of the Georgia Senate Butch Miller, which constitutes a substantial step toward the commission of false statements and writings.”
Prosecutors say this was an act of racketeering activity and an “overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
Trump Trial a Political ‘Prize’
Ms. Willis, who plans to try all 19 defendants together, has also proposed a trial start date of March 4, 2024, which is also the eve of Super Tuesday.Super Tuesday is typically the busiest day of the presidential primary calendar and will see 15 states hold their presidential primaries.
“The indictment was filed at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Monday, August 14, 2023, while the motion was filed at 12:49 p.m. on August 16, 2023,” the court filing states. “To our knowledge, not one of the 19 defendants named in the indictment has been served with any warrant, taken into custody, had a first appearance, or been arraigned, or waived arraignment,” his lawyers wrote.
“In other words, when the motion was filed, not even a single defendant had either submitted to or been properly subjected to the jurisdiction of the Court in this case. There are also no entries of appearance by any defense counsel for any of the 19 Defendants upon whom the State could serve a copy of the motion. Indeed, it was served upon no one at all,” they wrote.
Attorneys for Mr. Clark went on to note that Ms. Willis’s office “has no earthly idea whether any of the proposed dates fit the calendars” of any of the defendants, adding that the scheduled trial date “could be interpreted as an attempt to stake out a place at the head of the line of prosecutors seeking the ‘prize’ of trying the former President before the 2024 presidential election.”
President Trump, who is currently leading in Republican 2024 presidential polls, has called the latest indictment against him a “political witch hunt.”
He and his co-defendants listed in the indictment have denied any wrongdoing.
