Meadows asks for Georgia charges to be dismissed

Mark Meadows, who served as former President Trump’s White House chief of staff, is urging a judge to dismiss criminal charges brought against him last week alongside his former boss.

Meadows insisted he is immune from Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis’s prosecution because the allegations are connected to his role as a federal official.

Meadows was indicted alongside Trump and 17 others last week in a sprawling racketeering indictment over alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Meadows faces two charges.

After the indictment was filed, Meadows quickly began an attempt to move his case from state to federal court. Over the weekend, his attorneys went a step further and asked the judge weighing that attempted move to dismiss the charges against Meadows entirely.

“As a federal official at the time of the charged conduct, he is immune from state prosecution under the Supremacy Clause of the Federal Constitution,” Meadows’s attorneys wrote.

Meadows has insisted he has immunity because the allegations — which include organizing calls between Georgia election officials and Trump as well as meeting with Michigan lawmakers about unfounded claims of fraud — were part of his function as chief of staff and that he complied with federal law.

“The conduct charged here falls squarely within the scope of Mr. Meadows’s duties as Chief of Staff and the federal policy underlying that role,” Meadows’s attorneys wrote. “He need show only ‘some nexus,’ … but here, the connection is much closer than what that broad standard embraces.”

Meadows is so far the only of the 19 defendants to attempt to dismiss the charges ahead of trial or move his case to federal court, though more are expected.

Jeffrey Clark, an indicted Justice Department official whom Trump wanted to make attorney general after the 2020 election, has signaled he may also raise an immunity defense to his charges under the Supremacy Clause.

All defendants also face a deadline of Friday to surrender themselves to the Fulton County court.