ATLANTA (Reuters) – Lawyers for Donald Trump’s onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows are set to argue in court Monday that a federal judge should take over a Georgia criminal case alleging he and the former U.S. president conspired to subvert the 2020 election.
The hearing is the first major court battle in the racketeering case in which prosecutors allege Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and 18 of his Republican allies tried to overturn his election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Meadows is seeking to move his case to federal court, where he would face a larger and more politically diverse jury pool than in Fulton County, Georgia, the Atlanta-area Democratic stronghold where he was indicted.
He argues that the case should be moved and subsequently dismissed because he has immunity from prosecution for carrying out what he says were his duties as a federal official.
U.S. District Judge Steven Jones’ decision on the matter could have broad implications for Trump and his co-defendants, some of whom also have sought to move their cases to federal court.
Trump has not sought to move his case, but legal experts say he is likely to do so in the coming weeks. He has denied wrongdoing and said the criminal case — one of four he faces — is part of a political plot to prevent him from retaking the White House in the November 2024 election.
State law would still apply if the case is moved to federal court. The president — including Trump if he is elected — could not pardon any defendant.
Prosecutors alleged in a sprawling, 41-count indictment filed in early August that Trump and his supporters knowingly tried to subvert the election results in Georgia, a crucial state that can swing to either party but was won by Biden.
Prosecutors say Meadows furthered the alleged scheme by arranging calls and meetings where Trump pressured election officials to change the vote count in his favor.
Some legal experts say Meadows and other co-defendants who seek to move their cases are unlikely to succeed because the federal government has no official role in the administration of state elections, meaning their actions fell outside of their official duties.
But legal questions concerning the scope of “official duties” and the degree of immunity conferred upon them are unsettled.
Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, whom Trump asked during a phone call to “find” enough votes for him to win, has been called to testify at the hearing by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat who brought the charges.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in Atlanta; editing by Amy Stevens and Diane Craft)
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