Because Mark Meadows worked in the TFG’s White House and served as his Chief of Staff, Meadows believes he’s entitled to have the two counts filed against him in Georgia moved to federal court. Meadows’ attorneys George Terwilliger and Joseph Englert, used “a federal law that they argue requires the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal court system when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting ‘under color’ of their office.” Who would have thought that plotting (conspiring) to overthrow an election was acting “under color” of their office?
“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,” Terwilliger wrote in the filing. “One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”
“This is precisely the kind of state interference in a federal official’s duties that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits, and that the removal statute shields against,” Terwilliger wrote.
Terwilliger additionally says in the filing that while Meadows intends to file a motion to dismiss the indictment entirely, removing the case into federal court would “halt the state-court proceedings against Mr. Meadows.”
TFG is expected to do the same because who knew trying to overthrow an election is “under color” of their duties while in office?
