Mark Meadows Pressures Federal Judge To Find 11,780 Reasons To Disappear His Georgia RICO Case

Coups are part of your White House job now?

Is it official government business to offer a state employee campaign cash to speed up a vote recount?

Asking for Mark Meadows, who just filed a motion to remove his criminal prosecution in the Fulton County RICO case to the (federal) Northern District of Georgia on the theory that he was doing VRY SRS White House chief of staff business when he tried to toss out the votes of millions of Americans and overthrow the government. And under 28 USC § 1442, federal officers sued or charged “in an official or individual capacity for or relating to any act under color of such office” can remove civil and criminal cases filed in state court to a federal venue.

So the issue here is whether Meadows was conducting official executive branch business when he:

• traveled to Cobb County, Georgia, on December 22, 2020, to observe the ongoing signature match audit;

• arranged for Trump to speak by phone to Georgia Secretary of State’s Chief Investigator, Frances Watson, on December 23, so that the president could pressure her to toss out ballots;

• texted Watson on December 27 wondering, "Is there way to speed up Fulton county signature verification in order to have results before Jan if the trump campaign assist financially"; and

• arranged and participated in the January 2, 2021, phone call where Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have” and made repeated false accusations about poll worker Ruby Freeman.

On the face of it, the answer would appear to be “no.” The executive branch has nothing to do with state tabulation of votes. Federal and state investigators, including from Trump’s own Justice Department, had already determined that no substantial fraud had occurred. And, not for nothing, but Trump wasn’t pointing to 11,780 specific fraudulent votes — he wanted Raffensperger to make a false voting record, and then find the “evidence” to back it up later.

And yet Meadows argues that it was his job, as White House chief of staff, to play Columbo and ferret out the truth himself, and so the federal court must assume jurisdiction and them immediately dismiss this case under the Supremacy Clause.

“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,” he writes, huffing that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is trying to prosecute him for “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.”

Fellas, is it illegal to idle your car in front of the bank for a couple minutes and then give your friends a ride home? Next they’ll be making it a crime to wear a ski mask in August!

The crazy thing is, it just might work. Trump made this exact same play in May when he tried to get the false business records case filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg moved to federal court. In that instance, Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that laundering the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels through his business was not colorably part of Trump’s official duties, because no, shut up, that’s fuckbonkers. But it’s not fuckbonkers to say that Meadows was doing his job as chief of staff when he set up those calls and tried to stick his nose into Georgia’s recount. And so US District Judge Steven Jones has found that summary remand — that is, sending it back to state court immediately — is not appropriate, and scheduled an August 28 hearing on the matter.

If Meadows’s removal gambit does not succeed, Jeff Clark’s might. Remember, he’s the Justice Department lawyer who tried to get acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and his deputies to sign off on that wackass letter to Georgia legislators claiming to have found evidence of fraud and encouraging them to reconvene to investigate and steal Biden’s electoral votes. When Rosen refused, Clark convinced Trump to fire Rosen and make Clark acting AG, so he could send letters to all six swing states. The plot was only foiled when the entire leadership of the DOJ and the White House Counsel’s Office threatened to quit loudly and en masse if Trump went through with it. But Clark has a more than colorable argument that writing the letter, for which he’s charged with making false statements and writings in violation of O.C.G.A. 16-10-20, was a part of his official duties. And so when (not if) he moves for removal, he’s pretty likely to succeed.

The even crazier thing is, there’s a non-fuckbonkers argument that if any of Clark, Meadows, or Trump succeeds in getting their cases removed to federal court, the entire case and all the defendants could get removed as a piece. The bad news is, this argument, even if it fails, is going to eat some time. The good news is even if he succeeds, DA Willis will still be in charge of the case, it will still be governed by Georgia law, and Trump wouldn’t be able to use federal pardon power to make the charges go away even if he somehow manages to get reelected.

In the meantime, all 19 defendants have to surrender by August 25, and the DA intends to go to trial on March 4, 2024. LFG!

[State of Georgia v. Meadows, Docket via Court Listener]

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