Mark Meadows, who used to be the chief of staff at the White House, shocked the legal world this week when he testified for five hours to try to get the charges against him in Fulton County, Georgia, moved to federal court.
Meadows has been charged with two of 41 charges in the indictment, which also names former President Trump along with 17 other people. According to Georgia’s Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) law, Meadows is accused of encouraging a public servant to break his oath of office.
As proof that Meadows broke state law, Fani Willis, the DA for Fulton County, pointed out that he helped set up calls between Trump and different state lawmakers.
For example, the accusation says:
“On or around the 23rd day of the month of December 2020, DONALD TRUMP made a phone call to Frances Watson, the head of investigations for the Georgia Sec. of State’s office, which MARK RANDALL MEADOWS had already scheduled. In the course of the phone call, DONALD TRUMP said that he was the winner of the presidential election that took place in Georgia on November 3, 2020, ‘by means of hundreds of thousands of votes,’ which was not true. He also told Watson, ‘When the correct answer gets out, you’re going to be praised.’”
Almost two weeks before Meadows’s statement, his lawyers filed a motion to transfer the proceedings to the federal court, saying that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause safeguarded his acts as chief of staff.
So said Breitbart News:
“Nothing that Mr. Meadows is said to have carried out in the indictment is a crime in and of itself,” Meadows’ lawyers George Terwilliger and Joseph Englert said.
“The Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution prohibits this form of state interference in a federal officer’s official duties, and the removal law protects against it,” according to the argument.
Meadows’ five-hour statement shocked the legal world because it gave Georgia prosecutors the chance to question him further.
“Federal law says that personnel of the executive branch can’t do political work on the job,” Georgia prosecutors stated, referring to the Hatch Act, which says that “a federal worker can’t use his or her official power or influence to interfere with or change the outcome of an election.”
As Politico pointed out:
“During a sometimes-cold cross-examination, prosecutor Anna Cross asked Meadows to think of a setting that he would consider to be outside of his job tasks. The only one that the former chief of staff could think of was when he spoke at a campaign gathering. In general, he stated that he believed the federal government had a right to want ‘accurate and just elections,’ and he mentioned the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Department of Justice many times when talking about how they were working toward that goal.”
The ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones will have a significant effect on the remainder of Willis’s lawsuit against Trump and the 18 co-defendants because four other parties have joined Meadows in requesting that the case be transferred to federal court, and Trump is anticipated to follow suit.
