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- Lawyers for Mark Meadows asked a judge to dismiss the criminal charges against him.
- He faces RICO charges in Georgia for his efforts in Trump's scheme to overturn election results.
- His lawyers say he was just doing his job as Trump's chief of staff.
Donald Trump's former chief-of-staff, Mark Meadows, has asked a judge to dismiss the new indictment against him, arguing that he was just doing his job and should be immune from the criminal charges.
A grand jury in Atlanta brought the indictment against Meadows last week, accusing him of participating in a racketeering enterprise that sought to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election. Meadows is one of 19 people, including Trump, named as a defendant in the case.
Meadows pressured Georgia state officials to take steps that would help Trump win the state's presidential election in 2020, even though he lost, the indictment from the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says.
He also personally went to Georgia to watch a non-public vote audit, planned to delay Congress's vote certification on January 6, 2021, attended calls where Trump pressured Georgia officials to change election results, and arranged meetings with fake electors — some of whom are also co-defendants in the case — who plotted to falsely declare Trump the true winner of the 2020 election in several states, the indictment says.
A day after the criminal charges were filed against Meadows, his attorneys moved to bring the case to federal court, rather than have the charges considered in a state-level court.
The case was assigned to US District Judge Steve C. Jones, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. Jones hasn't yet decided whether to grant the move, but Meadows's lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the case anyway in a Monday filing.
The new motion from Meadows's lawyers argues he's protected by the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, which historically shields federal employees against interference from state officials.
"The State's prosecution of Mr. Meadows threatens the important federal interest in providing the President of the United States with close, confidential advice and assistance, firmly entrenched in federal law for nearly 100 years," Meadows' lawyers wrote, citing a law review paper written by Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan.
As the US president's chief of staff, Meadows served in an "advice-and-assist function" whose conduct was part of "his official duties and the federal policy underlying them," his lawyers wrote. Even if state officials like Willis deem his activities as breaking state law, they're consistent with federal law and therefore protected, according to his lawyers.
Meadows's lawyers also point out that Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith recently brought an indictment against Trump over his efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, but did not charge Meadows. It's a sign, they argue, that Meadows is protected by the Constitution's supremacy clause.
"Indeed, neither the State of Georgia in its indictment, nor the United States in its recently charged case involving overlapping conduct, United States v. Trump, has accused Mr. Meadows of violating federal law," they wrote. "Even if they had, moreover, a federal official does not lose Supremacy Clause immunity based on a violation of federal law where the violation was not clear and willful."