One of the 19 people indicted in Georgia this week is former White House Chief of Staff and former North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows.
Meadows is charged with racketeering in conjunction with former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Georgia’s results in the 2020 presidential election.
He’s also charged with soliciting a public officer to violate his oath. That public officer is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Meadows was on the call Trump made on Jan. 2, 2021 to pressure Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.
Meadows was previously a well-known, media-friendly, conservative congressman representing part of western North Carolina. He was the former chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Meadows was Trump’s White House chief of staff for a little less than a year until Trump left office in January 2021.
But after holding one of the most powerful positions in the country he finds himself in legal limbo.
“He was chief of staff for President of the United States, he was a powerful member of Congress and now he’s somebody who we don’t hear from much at all. I think he would like to be heard from even less,” said Western Carolina University Politics Professor Chris Cooper. “This is a massive fall from grace, a massive fall from power for Mark Meadows.”
On Tuesday, Meadows’ attorneys filed to move his Georgia case to federal court. They argue state courts can’t hold proceedings when a federal official is charged in connection with something they did in an official capacity in their office.
Moving it to federal court could increase the chance of the case being dismissed.
“I think he’s going to make the argument that he was just doing his job, that he was fulfilling his duty as chief of staff, a federal position, so I think that’s another reason for him to move to federal court, a move we hear former President Donald Trump might do as well,” Cooper said.
If his case moves to federal court, the jury pool would be drawn from a more politically diverse group of people in Georgia. It also establishes the possibility of a presidential pardon if he is convicted in a federal trial.
And in Georgia, television cameras are allowed inside the courtroom. If a trial was held in federal court, every step of the trial wouldn’t be broadcast to millions of viewers at home.