Meadows asks for Georgia charges to shift to federal court
Meadows asks for Georgia charges to shift to federal court
Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows is seeking to move his charges in the Georgia 2020 case to federal court, where he plans to ask a judge to dismiss the case. “Mr. Meadows is entitled to rem…
“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,” attorneys for Meadows wrote in the Tuesday filing in the Northern District of Georgia.
“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,” the filing states.
“This is precisely the kind of state interference in a federal official’s duties that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits.”
State crimes go in state court, and he can raise his federally-based defense there, where it will be laughed out.
This is a desperate attempt to move the trial away from the cameras in state court.
33And because if Trump does manage to get re-elected, he can pardon himself for federal crimes. He can’t pardon state crimes.
17Isn't it still a state crime even if it's moved to a federal court? Still state charges and state standards.
2
Petition to remove to federal court is a legitimate thing to do;
whether it will be granted is another story. I'm not sure how that plays out,I am hearing now that the bar to get a case moved to federal court is low. All you really have to do is show that you are or were a federal official. I do know that if his case is moved to federal court, the only things that change are:- Venue (would be a federal court)
- Judge (would be a federal judge)
- Procedural rules (would be federal court rules)
- Jury pool
- Media coverage (cannot be televised in federal court without a special exception)
The charges remain state charges, the standards by which those charges need to be proven remain the state standards, and the pardon options remain the same as Georgia pardon options (i.e., essentially none).
The thing that these defendants, Trump in particular, want is to not have the trial televised. They want to be able to spin everything inside out to the public; we've seen Trump do that very thing, posting blatant lies, as part of the GA RICO charges. I think the public has a vested interest in being able to witness a case of this nature first hand, and because of that, there is a fair chance that a federal judge would allow it to be televised anyway.
I also wonder whether this request can be taken to mean that Meadows is not cooperating with the Government (yet).
12
Is this the “I was only driving the getaway car” defense?
24That or “only following orders.”
20
"States' rights" - Republicans
22The real play here is to keep it off TV as someone says below and to expand the jury pool beyond Fulton County. One only has to look at an electoral map to know why.
9Brookings did a long but very readable analysis about why this won't work: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/11122022_GA_Investigation_Report_SecondEdition.pdf
7I was thinking "long analysis" might be 20-30 pages, but holy crap! A 300 page PDF, from November before we even knew what the charges were...
2Haha yes it's overall very long, but the section on this specific question isn't too long, just 3 pages.
3
"look guys, I was just the covfefe boy"
5he isnt charged with interfering in a federal process, why would it go to them? he interfered in a states ability to certify its own voting, and breaking that states laws. literally nothing to do with his job as a federal asshole.
3