Trump Will Not Seek To Move Georgia Election Case To Federal Court

Former President Donald Trump decided against seeking to move his Fulton County, Georgia, election case to a federal court, his lawyers said in a court filing Thursday.

Trump attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little filed a two-page notice with the Fulton Superior Court, saying the former president has decided he won’t try to move the case out of the heavily Democratic jurisdiction, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. 

“President Trump now notifies the Court that he will NOT be seeking to remove his case to federal court,” the notice said. “This decision is based on his well-founded confidence that this Honorable Court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia.” 

Earlier this month, Trump said he was considering a request to move the trial to a federal court, which could have moved the case to the Northern District of Georgia and potentially given Trump a more conservative jury pool. To convince the federal court to take the case, Trump would have to prove he was operating as a federal official, not a presidential candidate, when he challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, the Journal-Constitution reported. Trump had until Friday to file a notice of removal in a federal court. 

Trump’s decision to forego a request to move the trial comes weeks after Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows failed to get his case moved to a federal court. In a 49-page ruling, Judge Steve Jones ruled that Meadows was not acting as a federal official when he backed Trump’s challenge of the election. 

“The evidence adduced at the hearing establishes that the actions at the heart of the State’s charges against Meadows were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign with an ultimate goal of affecting state election activities and procedures,” Jones wrote. 

While the jury pool in a federal court could have favored Trump, the former president’s team was likely considering how Trump would have to face Judge Jones, an Obama appointee who sits on the court in the Northern District of Georgia. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee was appointed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp. 

Trump was charged along with 18 others in a 41-count indictment, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Ken Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Mike Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Micah Tresher Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathleen Latham, Scott Hall, and Misty Hampton.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP

The former president was charged with 13 counts, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, and two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings among other charges. Trump said his arrest in Georgia, which resulted in a mugshot of the leading GOP candidate in the 2024 election, represented “a very sad day for America.” 

“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice, we did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong,” he said. “And everybody knows that I’ve never had such support.”