One of the highest-ranking co-defendants in the case against former President Donald Trump and 18 others is trying to move his case from Fulton County, Georgia, to federal court.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is among the 19 people who were indicted by a Fulton County Grand Jury and who had turned themselves in last week to be officially charged, WSB reported.
Meadows is charged with violation of the Georgia RICO Act and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
However, Meadows doesn’t want a state judge to hear the case. Instead, he wants to move it to federal court, saying the charges “all occurred during his tenure and as part of his service as Chief of Staff,” WSB reported. Meadows’ attorneys also said the charges should be dismissed because Meadows did nothing criminal, The Associated Press reported.
Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis says Meadows violated the Hatch Act, and that it should remain in the state’s hands.
The Hatch Act restricts partisan political activity by federal employees, the AP reported.
Meadows was part of the phone call between Trump and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which Trump was heard asking Raffensperger to find more than 11,000 votes in his favor, WSB reported.
The Washington Post reported that Meadows testified almost three hours during the morning portion of the hearing and said that everything he was accused of doing in the Georgia case was done so as part of his official duties as chief of staff. He said he was Trump’s gatekeeper and he had to “be aware” of things.
However, Meadows testified that he had no knowledge of the Trump campaign’s efforts to contest the election results. He said that the call with Raffensperger that he participated in had three lawyers on it who had launched a lawsuit against Georgia’s secretary of state. He also said he didn’t know that the campaign was contesting the results of the Michigan results either, the Post reported.
Meadows also denied that he had written a memo to White House personnel officer John McEntee that told then Vice President Mike Pence how to delay the election certification with Meadows, testifying, “When this came out in the indictment, it was the biggest surprise for me. Me asking Johnny McEntee for this kind of a memo just didn’t happen,” the AP reported.
During the hearing, Trump’s attorneys were present, as were attorneys for at least one other defendant, the AP reported.
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