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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to turn down a bid from Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump's ex-chief of staff, to have his 2020 election fraud prosecution in Georgia moved to federal court.
Meadows was indicted in August 2023 alongside Trump and 17 other allies to the former president in a case brought on by Willis for allegedly conspiring to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results after Trump lost the state to Joe Biden. All 19 defendants initially pleaded not guilty but four have since taken plea deals.
Following the Supreme Court's July 1 ruling—which gave former presidents immunity for official acts conducted while in office but not unofficial acts—Meadows asked the high court to move his racketeering case from the state to the federal level.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Georgia rejected the same request from Meadows last year. The former chief of staff's lawyers argued in their petition to the Supreme Court that its July 1 immunity ruling is grounds for his case to be moved.
"That decision makes clear that federal immunity fully protects former officers, often requires difficult and fact-intensive judgment calls at the margins, and provides not just a substantive immunity but a use immunity that protects against the use of official acts to try to hold a current or former federal officer liable for unofficial acts. All of those sensitive disputes plainly belong in federal court," the petition read.
Willis said in Thursday's filing that the Supreme Court should deny Meadow's request, arguing, in part, that Meadows "repeatedly admitted to engaging in activities on behalf of the Trump Campaign."
The district attorney added that despite Meadows emphasizing the importance of his case's need for a federal forum, "former President Trump did not even attempt
to remove his Georgia case to federal court."
Willis also details several alleged acts by Meadows to further the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election which can be found in the indictment, such as "soliciting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office by altering the certified returns for presidential electors."
The district attorney's case focuses on Trump's contact with Raffensperger and an alleged plot to submit a false slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. With Meadows beside him, Trump made a call to Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, in which he asked Raffensperger to "find" enough votes for Trump to win in Georgia, according to audio from the call obtained by multiple news outlets.
Newsweek reached out to Meadows' lawyer and Willis' office via email for comment on Thursday evening.
Update 10/3/24, 5:07 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more