Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows shocked the legal community on Monday when he took the witness stand for five hours in his attempt to remove the Fulton County, Georgia, indictment against him to federal court.
Meadows was charged with two counts in a 41-count indictment that named himself, former President Donald Trump, and 17 others. Meadows is being charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statute for soliciting an official to violate his oath of office.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pointed to Meadows’ involvement in setting up calls between Trump and various state legislators as evidence of his alleged violation of state law.
For example, the indictment alleges:
On or about the 23rd day of December 2020, DONALD JOHN TRUMP placed a telephone call to Office of the Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson that had been previously arranged by MARK RANDALL MEADOWS. During the phone call, DONALD JOHN TRUMP falsely stated that he had won the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia “by hundreds of thousands of votes” and stated to Watson that “when the right answer comes out you’ll be praised.”
Meadows’ testimony came nearly two weeks after his attorneys filed a motion to remove the case to federal court, arguing that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause protected his actions as chief of staff.
As Breitbart News reported:
“Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se,” Meadows’ attorneys George Terwilliger and Joseph Englert argued.
…
“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,” the motion states.
Meadows’ five-hour-long testimony shocked the legal community because it opened him to cross-examination by Georgia prosecutors.
“Federal law prohibits employees of the executive branch from engaging in political activity in the course of their work,” Georgia prosecutors noted, citing the Hatch Act, a law that “bars a federal employee from ‘us[ing] his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.’”
As Politico detailed:
During cross-examination that at times grew chilly, prosecutor Anna Cross challenged Meadows to come up with any situation that he would view as outside of the scope of his job duties. The only one the former chief of staff offered was speaking at a campaign rally. He said generally that he thought the federal government had a legitimate interest in “accurate and fair elections,” and referred repeatedly to Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice involvement in promoting that goal.
U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones’ decision will have an immense impact on the rest of Willis’s case against Trump and the 18 co-defendants, as four have joined Meadows in his quest to remove the case to federal court, and Trump is also expected to do the same.
The case is Georgia v. Meadows, No. 1:23-cv-03621-SCJ, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
