The lawyers for Mark Meadows, then-President Donald Trump‘s final chief of staff, filed for the charges against him related to the former president’s call with Georgia election officials following the 2020 elections to be dismissed.
Meadows representatives filed a motion to dismiss in federal court on Saturday night, less than a week after the Fulton County Grand Jury indicted him, the former president, and 17 others, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
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Meadows’ motion cites the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, arguing that federal employees are totally immune from state charges as it relates to carrying out official actions for the federal government. His lawyers argued whether these charges violate the Supremacy Clause “is a simple and lenient test” and that in this case “it is readily met here.”
Should that not be enough to get the charges thrown out, Meadows’ legal counsel argues that his actions are still protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. His conduct is “protected political activity that lies in the heartland of [the] First Amendment,” the motion said, and his lawyers said in the motion they also believe he has a fair notice defense under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Earlier this week, his representation filed a motion to move the recent indictment against him to federal court, arguing that because the case relates to conduct that occurred during his time as chief of staff, he has the right to remove his portion of the indictment from the Fulton County Superior Court.
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Meadows met with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s chief investigator, Frances Watson, in Cobb County to discuss an ongoing audit of signature matches, according to the 41-count indictment. The indictment accuses the defendants of unlawfully conspiring to conduct and participate in a “criminal enterprise” following Trump’s 2020 election loss in the Peach State.
The indictment marks the fourth criminal case leveled against the former president this year after being indicted on state charges in New York over a 2016 hush-money scheme and federal charges in Florida and Washington, D.C., over his retention and handling of classified documents and the 2020 election, respectively.
