Donald Trump’s ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows argues he’s immune from prosecution
- Meadows’ lawyers argued their client is immune from state charges because he was a federal official carrying out his job
- Meadows and Trump were among 19 defendants named last week in a sweeping 41-count Georgia grand jury indictment
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is urging a federal judge to dismiss the charges against him that were handed up by a Fulton County grand jury last week.
In a 28-page motion filed on Saturday, Meadows’ lawyers argued that their client is immune from state charges for the work he did when he was a federal official carrying out his job.
“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 help, firmly entrenched in federal law for nearly 100 years,” lawyers Joseph Englert, George Terwilliger, John Moran and Michael Francisco argued.
If such a prosecution were allowed to move forward, they continued, it would give “rise to precisely the sort of state interference in federal affairs the Supremacy Clause [of the US Constitution] prohibits”.
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Donald Trump, 18 others indicted in Georgia for alleged bid to overturn state election results
A spokesman for Fulton County District lawyer Fani Willis, who secured racketeering and other election interference-related charges against Meadows, former President Donald Trump and 17 others, declined to comment.
The filing came days after Meadows’ lawyers sought to move their client’s case from state to federal court under the so-called removal statute, which was enacted in 1789 to protect federal officials from being harassed and prosecuted by state officials. Trump and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark are expected to make similar moves.