NC’s Mark Meadows defends himself, asking for Georgia charges to be moved and dismissed

Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s last chief of staff, defended himself in court documents Tuesday against criminal charges filed in Georgia on Monday night accusing him of helping an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Meadows, a Republican who once served as North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District congressman, faces two charges of racketeering and solicitation of violation of oath of a public officer, according to the indictment.

“Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President,” his attorneys wrote in court documents. “One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accuses Meadows of working with the former president to direct Trump adviser John McEntee to create a plan to disrupt and delay the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress proceedings to certify President Joe Biden’s election.

That detail had not been previously reported, though much of the 98-page indictment included information that had been made public.

What is Mark Meadows accused of?

Meadows is mentioned 12 times in the indictment. He’s accused of spreading election conspiracy theories to Michigan legislators, setting up meetings with Pennsylvania legislators for the same purposes, traveling to Cobb County, Georgia, to attempt to access a signature-match audit of their election results and setting up two phone calls with Georgia officials to pressure them into overturning the election.

“The events giving rise to the indictment occurred during Mr. Meadows’s tenure as White House Chief of Staff and are directly related to that role,” his attorneys argue.

Meadows’ lawyers petitioned the court to move the case to federal court, arguing that a federal official is protected from criminal prosecution in state court relating to his official duties. They also petitioned for the court to immediately dismiss his indictments.

The Georgia case became Trump’s fourth indictment, totaling 91 charges. Attorney Sidney Powell, a lawyer who grew up in the Triangle and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, also faces charges in the Georgia case. She’s accused of directing a company and individuals to access voting machines in Georgia and obtain and steal voter data. Powell is also considered a co-conspirator in a case out of Washington, D.C., connected to the events surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection, but she has not been charged.

Meadows had escaped any criminal charges in Trump’s other cases, despite his close interaction with the president. Many saw that as a sign that Meadows might have been collaborating with prosecutors, prior to Monday’s charges.

Meadows is being represented by attorneys at McGuireWoods.