State prosecutors in Georgia who are pursuing election subversion charges against former President Donald Trump urged the US Supreme Court on Thursday to allow their case against his former chief of staff Mark Meadows to continue in state court.
Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who served as White House chief of staff late in Trump’s term, was indicted last year in Fulton County on racketeering and other charges tied to phone calls and meetings in which Trump leaned on state officials to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia. Meadows has pleaded not guilty in the Georgia case.
Relying on a Reconstruction-era law intended to shield federal officials from state prosecutions, Meadows says his case should be moved to federal court, where he would argue he should be immune from prosecution. The case so far has turned on whether the steps he carried out for Trump were made in his official capacity as White House chief of staff or as a private individual.
Meadows “repeatedly admitted to engaging in activities on behalf of the Trump campaign” that were not official actions, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told the Supreme Court in Thursday’s brief.
While Meadows’ case raises concerns about “unscrupulous prosecutors” pursuing unfounded prosecutions against former federal officials, Willis argued that possibility “remains entirely ‘hypothetical.’”
Meadows “assumes that the scenario is inevitable and sure to be widespread, but his references to the overheated words of opinion editorials, cannot suffice to demonstrate that a new era of ubiquitous prosecution of former federal officials is at hand,” Willis argued.
Meadows’ appeal raises questions that are also at issue in the election subversion case pending against Trump. The Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents are entitled to at least some immunity for official actions, and US District Judge Tanya Chutkan is currently weighing whether Trump’s actions after the 2020 election were taken in an official capacity or as a political candidate seeking reelection.
Meadows’ appeal to the Supreme Court, which he filed in July, repeatedly referred to the Trump immunity ruling, with his lawyers writing that “a White House chief of staff facing criminal charges based on actions relating to his work for the president of the United States should not be a close call – especially now that this court has recognized that federal immunity impacts what evidence can be considered, not just what conduct can form the basis for liability.”
The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals said last year that the Georgia prosecution against Meadows should move forward in state court, concluding that former federal officials are not covered by the statute “removing” state cases against government officials to federal court. Chief Judge William Pryor’s opinion for the court also said that “the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties.”
The Supreme Court is likely to consider whether to grant the case later this year.
Meadows has also sought to move his criminal case related to the 2020 election in Arizona to federal court but failed to convince a judge last month. Meadows plans to appeal that ruling, a source close to his legal team told CNN at the time.
CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
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