Trump Former Chief of Staff Seeks to Move Georgia Indictment to Federal Court

'Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se,' the filing reads

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows talks to reporters at the White House in Washington, on Oct. 21, 2020. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Mark Meadows, former chief of staff for President Donald Trump, is asking to move charges against him in a Georgia case over alleged 2020 election interference to federal court, where his lawyer says they plan to ask a judge they be dismissed.

“Mr. Meadows is entitled to remove this action to federal court because the charges against him plausibly give rise to a federal defense based on his role at all relevant times as the White House Chief of Staff to the President of the United States,” an attorney for Mr. Meadows wrote in a filing Tuesday.

Mr. Meadows was one of 19 charged, including President Trump, by a grand jury on Monday with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

He was also charged with “unlawfully soliciting, requesting, and importuning” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office via a phone call about the state’s votes.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a press conference after the grand jury’s vote that arrest warrants have been issued, and defendants have until noon on Aug. 25 to voluntarily surrender.

The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Meadows’s attorneys for comment.

Acts of Racketeering

“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,” Mr. Meadows’s attorney wrote in the filing. “One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”

The indictment lists (pdf) several of Mr. Meadows’s actions as chief of staff as acts of racketeering, including a Nov. 20, 2020, meeting with Michigan state legislators in the White House during which President Trump “made false statements concerning fraud in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Michigan,” and sending a text to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) the next day asking for the contact information of state legislators.

“Can you send me the number for the speaker and the leader of PA Legislature. POTUS wants to chat with them,” the text read.

The indictment claims, “This was an overt act in futherance of the conspiracy.”

It lists the following Nov. 25, 2020, meeting with Pennsylvania state legislators as a continuance of the alleged conspiracy, as well as Mr. Meadows’s participation in meetings with political adviser John McEntee in December 2020, when Mr. McEntee was asked to draw up plans to delay Congress’s joint session on Jan. 6, 2021.

In relation to Georgia, it cites Mr. Meadows’s trip to Cobb County Civic Center on Dec. 22, 2020, in order to try to observe the signature match audit, but was prevented from entering. The following day, the president made a call to Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson, and the indictment notes that Mr. Meadows had arranged the call. Days later, Mr. Meadows sent a text to Ms. Watson asking if there was any way the signature verification could be sped up, offering financial assistance.

Seeking Dismissal

Mr. Meadows’s attorneys are seeking to dismiss the charges entirely at a “later date,” and are filing to move the case to federal court in order to “halt the state-court proceedings against Mr. Meadows.”

“That will allow for the timely consideration of Mr. Meadows’s defenses, including his federal defense under the Supremacy Clause, without requiring him to defend himself in state court simultaneously.”

Given that he was acting in his official capacity as chief of staff, “this is precisely the kind of state interference in a federal official’s duties that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits, and that the removal statute shields against.”