Eight prominent conservative former governors, GOP administration lawyers and a judge have told a court they don’t believe Mark Meadows nor Jeffrey Clark should be protected from charges in Fulton County, Georgia, because of their roles in the Trump administration after the 2020 election.
The argument, filed as a third-party brief in proceedings where Clark and Meadows seek to move the Georgia state charges to federal court, musters support for keeping the entire case in state court.
A judge is set to consider arguments from Meadows and potentially Clark on Monday on moving the case, after both have asked to do so. A federal proceeding rather than state proceeding would use different rules in court, expand the possible jury pool to a wider, more politically diverse group than Atlanta alone, and potentially enable a Trump-appointed judge to oversee the case.
Meadows and Clark have argued they were acting after the 2020 election in their official capacities as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff and as a Justice Department appointee, respectively, prompting them to now seek a federal court’s intervention as they fight their charges.
Neither have been arrested nor entered initial pleadings at this time.
The Republicans argue Clark and Meadows’ efforts after the election went outside of their official duties because the federal government has no role in choosing a state’s electoral college voters.
“The conduct charged here by the Fulton County District Attorney— interference by Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia in order to aid Donald Trump’s candidacy—bore no connection to any duty of Mr. Meadows’s, Mr. Clark’s, or Mr. Trump’s office. Neither the president nor anyone else in the executive branch has any duty to superintend or participate in a State’s selection of its presidential electors. And there is no plausible basis for Mr. Meadows or Mr. Clark to claim Supremacy Clause immunity, protection under the First or Fourteenth Amendment, or any other federal defense to the charges,” the group of Republicans wrote to the court this week.
“Removal would be perverse, as this prosecution arises from interference with state-government operations and seeks to vindicate Georgia’s voice in a federal election, the very contest from which federal authority flows.”
The conservative group who made the filing include former federal appellate Judge Michael Luttig, former Republicans governors of Massachusetts and New Jersey William Weld and John Farmer Jr., former acting US Attorney General Stuart Gerson, and other top officials from the Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidential administrations.
The district attorney’s office in Fulton County has opposed moving the case as well, arguing Meadows was taking part in political activity on behalf of Trump, especially in facilitating Trump’s call to the Georgia secretary of state where Trump asked to “find” votes.
The former Republican officials said the same, about Clark.
“Composing a baldly false representation and importuning his superiors to send it in order to threaten Georgia officials is nothing other than election interference for a purely political and personal objective,” they wrote.
Trump could ask for similar protection as president but has not formally asked the court to consider moving his case at this time.