Mark Meadows' effort to move case to federal court puts him on ‘doorstep of a dismissal’: legal expert

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who is among 18 people indicted with Donald Trump Monday on charges involving trying to overturn the 2020 election result, is seeking to move his case from Georgia to federal court.

If he's successful, it could have a major influence on the outcome of his trial, a legal expert said Wednesday.

And former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, during an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” said other alleged co-conspirators are likely to pursue a similar legal avenue.

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Meadows “filed to have his case moved from Georgia court to federal court, why?” Tapper asked Honig.

“This is more than just procedural wrangling,” Honig said. “This could be outcome determinative, because if Mark Meadows can show that the charges relate to his performance of his official duties, in this case as White House Chief of Staff, then a couple things happen."

“First, he gets moved across the street to the federal courthouse. Second of all, he's then on the doorstep of a dismissal, because under the law, federal law, if a person can show that they've been criminally charged for something that they did, ‘under color of law,’ meaning in their capacity as a federal official, then the case gets thrown out altogether."

“So there's no question Mark Meadows has a reasonable argument to make here and I look for Donald Trump to make a similar argument. I don't think he has as strong an argument and I look for Jeffrey Clark, who worked at DOJ to make a similar argument. All of these are going to be potentially dispositive motions.”

Added Honig: “Dispositive means they either stay or they go away They live or they die."

“Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump are also expected to make the same request, do they have a strong case do you think?” asked Tapper.

“Donald Trump does not have as good a case as Mark Meadows because Trump will say, ‘Well, this was my effort to sort of regulate and make sure the election was clean as president’, but I think ...the prosecutors are going to respond, ‘No, this was you as a private citizen as a candidate, way overstepping your authority as President,”' Honig said.

“As for Rudy Giuliani, he's got nothing, he was not a federal employee at the time.”

Watch the video below or at the link here.

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