In his Georgia election interference case, Donald Trump has formally informed the judge that he is thinking about taking the matter to federal court.
Trump’s attorneys have said they will want to transfer the case, so they might be able to use the immunity protections granted to federal officials to get the accusations dropped.
“President Trump hereby notifies the Court that he may seek removal of his prosecution to federal court,” his lawyer Steven Sadow said in a brief court filing. “To be timely, his notice of removal must be filed within 30 days of his arraignment.”
The countdown began when Trump decided to forego the arraignment hearing and file a not guilty plea on August 31.
Trump’s prospective action to bring the state case to federal court might have a number of benefits. He would have a better chance of having the accusations against him dropped if he could persuade the court that the conduct listed in the indictment are related to his official responsibilities as a government employee.
Residents of Fulton County, where President Joe Biden received a commanding 47-point victory, will make up the jury in this case. The jury pool will be selected from a 10-county region close to Atlanta, which Biden won by a still sizable 32-point margin, if the case is kept in federal court. If the case were moved to federal court, the margin would not be much impacted.
A few of the case’s 19 co-defendants are already attempting to transfer it to federal court.
The former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, provided testimony to support the case last week. This month, there will be hearings to see if a federal judge would grant similar demands from Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department staffer who worked for Trump and the other defendants.
The decision reached by a federal judge on the former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request to shift the jurisdiction of his lawsuit would have a big impact on a request that was made by the legal team of his former boss.
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Willis has indicted Meadows, the petitioner, along with Trump and 17 other people on allegations of racketeering and other offenses. Meadows submitted a petition last week to have his case transferred from the local court to the U.S. Stephen Jones, district judge. He contends that the reported incidents happened when he was employed by the federal government.
Meadows is prepared to ask the federal court to dismiss the case, depending on the immunity granted by Trump before he left office.
“The decision by Jones would have massive implications for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis who has staked her career and political future on prosecuting Trump and his allies for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 election,” Trending Politics was highlighted.
The Hill claims that Meadows’ victory would make it much easier for Trump to have his lawsuit moved to a federal court.
“If Jones does permit Meadows to remove, it won’t be on the strength of Meadows’s legal argumentation. It will be because of the atmospherics of the case,” according to Lee Kovarsky, a University of Texas law professor, The Hill.
“And because it will be because of the atmospherics of the case, it seems likely that he would also permit Trump to remove, notwithstanding the specifics of the legal argument,” Kovarsky went on to add.
The Hill also said:
The racketeering allegations against Meadows and the other 18 defendants provide a strong case for a multi-year conspiracy to rig Georgia’s 2020 presidential election in favor of Trump.
161 acts have been singled out by the prosecution as proof of the conspiracy, with Meadows being linked to eight of them. Meetings with state lawmakers, an incident in which Meadows tried to watch a signature match audit while visiting Georgia, and setting up phone calls between state election officials and Trump are among these actions.
Some of the accusations have been disputed by Meadows.
Regarding Trump’s call to Georgia’s Secretary of State, the former chief of staff has been accused of encouraging a public servant to break the law.
Jones, who was nominated by Barack Obama, has already signaled that some of the allegations against Meadows may fulfill the requirements for the case to be transferred to federal court while he considers the issue. The legal counsel for Meadows and Fulton County prosecutors are at odds over whether this constitutes adequate justification for a change in venue.
