Former Attorney General Edwin Meese slammed the prosecution of former President Donald Trump and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in Georgia as a historic “affront” to federal constitutional authority.
Meese, 91, who headed up the DOJ under Ronald Reagan, condemned the prosecution of Trump and Clark in a declarative filing to U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, saying that the case made by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was unprecedented. Jones has been overseeing challenges to the prosecution of Trump and his allies for their alleged crimes in Georgia after the 2020 election.
“I am not aware of any state criminal prosecution ever being brought against a President and a senior Justice Department official like Mr. Clark for their privileged and confidential discussions of whether and how to assert federal law enforcement authority other than this new State of Georgia v. Trump, et al. Indictment,” Meese wrote last week.
“The prosecution of the President and [Clark] is a major affront to federal supremacy never before seen in the history of our country. If the premise of this prosecution were to be accepted, then state law enforcement officials could arrest local U.S. Attorneys and their Assistants while they were deliberating over whether and/or how to approach a possible prosecution of state or local officials,” he added.
Meese was referring the the “Supremacy Clause” of the Constitution, which says that the Constitution and subsequent laws passed under the authority of the U.S. “shall be the supreme Law of the Land.”
The filing pointed back to the Civil Rights era, when state and federal authorities conflicted over civil rights legislation. Meese said that, under Fulton County’s interpretation, state or local authorities could “enter the Oval Office and arrest the President and his Attorney General during their deliberations over whether and to what extent to assert federal law enforcement powers against state or local officials.”
“Not even George Wallace or Orval Faubus, during the heights of the heated civil rights-era disputes, were willing to go that far against President Kennedy and his Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,” Meese wrote.
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Clark is charged with one count of violating Georgia’s RICO Act and one count of criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings. The charges stem from when Clark was at the DOJ and he drafted a document he hoped to send to Georgia officials saying that the DOJ had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.”
Clark has said that he was acting within his official duties, but has been accused of promoting false statements. He says he and officials at the DOJ disagreed over the 2020 election. Meese agreed with Clark, saying that he was acting within his official prerogatives.