11th Circuit weighs bid from Trump’s indicted chief of staff to move Georgia case to federal court

ATLANTA (CN) — A federal appeals court heard arguments Friday from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move the charges against him in the Georgia election interference case from state to federal court.

Meadows argues in his appeal that a federal court judge erred in focusing on the “gravamen or ‘heart’ of the charges,” and requiring Meadows to prove that “a heavy majority” of the charged conduct related to his role as chief of staff when they rejected the removal.

Meadows says that his case should be transferred under the Supremacy Clause, which provides robust immunity to federal officials against claims under state law related to official conduct.

However, the three-judge 11th Circuit panel questioned whether the law applies equally to former federal officials, such as Meadows, as it does to current ones.

"The purpose of the statue is to protect federal authority," McDonald Wakeford, chief senior assistant district attorney of Fulton County, said. "But there is no federal authority to protect here."

Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Will Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, raised concerns over the possibility of the state's interpretation of the law having a "chilling effect" on future administrations.

If a cabinet officer steps down and is immediately indicted on charges related to their activities in enforcing policies by a "deeply unpopular" administration, but everything was part of their official duties, it could "create a chilling effect on those seeking to run for office," U.S. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum said.

Meadows' attorney, George J. Terwilliger III, a former U.S. attorney general, told the judges that his "decision making would be very different" if he knew he could be charged in state court as a federal official and not have it removed to federal court.

"The problem here is that according to him, everything was in his official duties and that just can’t be right. An alleged effort to unlawfully change the outcome of the election for a particular candidate when the office for president has no occupation in that," Rosenbaum, a Barack Obama appointee, told Meadows' attorney.

U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu said that Meadows' testimony during the lower court's evidentiary hearing in August "did not provide any outer limits to what his duties were" as the White House chief of staff. "How do you reconcile, solely for purposes for removal, the acknowledgment of that behavior under the Hatch Act?" the Joe Biden appointee asked Terwilliger.

During the hearing, Meadows described the functions of his role as being “the ear of the president," which involved managing former President Trump's schedule and participating in meetings and phone calls of a political nature. He also acknowledged that his role as chief of staff did not exempt him from the requirements of the Hatch Act, which he knew to prohibit a federal employee from using “his official authority or influence for the purpose of affecting the result of an election.”

The state argued that Meadows' actions were taken for the direct benefit of the Trump campaign and his reelection efforts, which falls outside the duties of his federal role.

As laid out in the indictment returned by a Fulton County grand jury on Aug. 14, several people, including Meadows and Trump, "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election" in then-President Trump’s favor.

Meadows faces two charges — violating Georgia's anti-racketeering law and soliciting a violation of oath by public officer. The second is a felony charge that stems from his involvement in Trump’s infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call, in which the former president pressed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state. The indictment accuses Meadows of “soliciting” Raffensperger to violate his oath of office by altering the certified returns for presidential electors.

“Even if Meadows took on tasks that mirror the duties that he carried out when acting in his official role as White House chief of staff (such as attending meetings, scheduling phone calls, and managing the president’s time) he has failed to demonstrate how the election-related activities that serve as the basis for the charges in the indictment are related to any of his official acts,” U.S. District Judge Steve Jones wrote in his September ruling rejecting Meadows' removal request.

The circuit judges did not signal when they intend to issue a ruling.

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