Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows filed in the Northern District of Georgia to move his charges listed in the ex-president’s fourth indictment to a federal court, where he reportedly plans to ask a judge to dismiss his case under federal law.
“Mr. Meadows is entitled to remove this action to federal court because the charges against him plausibly give rise to a federal defense based on his role at all relevant times as the White House Chief of Staff to the President of the United States,” attorneys for Meadows wrote in the 14-page filing on Tuesday.
Meadows is one of 18 co-defendants named in former President Donald Trump’s Fulton County, Georgia, indictment following a criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pursued charging individuals under Georgia’s RICO Act, which allows prosecutors to connect various crimes committed by multiple defendants and argue that they were working together toward a criminal goal — and were part of a “criminal enterprise.”
In the 41-count indictment brought against Trump and his allies, Meadows faces charges under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute and for soliciting an official to violate their oath of office.
The indictment alleges that Meadows, Trump, and others “unlawfully solicited, requested, and importuned” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, citing a phone call where the former president reportedly tried to pressure the state official to find 11,780 votes.
Meadows denied any wrongdoing in assisting Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results.
“Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President,” the filing states. “One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”
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The filing argues the indictment “is precisely the kind of state interference in a federal official’s duties that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits,” which the core of the section states the Constitution and federal laws take priority over any conflicting rules of state law.
Attorneys for Meadows also reportedly stated in the filing that while the former chief of staff intends to file a separate motion to dismiss the indictment, the request to move into federal court would delay state court proceedings.
“Even if the Court is not prepared to dismiss outright at this early stage, however, justice requires granting removal and halting any further state-court proceedings against Mr. Meadows,” the filing said. “That will allow for the timely consideration of Mr. Meadows’s defenses, including his federal defense under the Supremacy Clause, without requiring him to defend himself in state court simultaneously.”
When the indictment was first revealed Monday, the Trump campaign released a statement slamming Fulton County DA Fani Willis as a “rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments.” Willis, the campaign said, “strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign.”
Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.