Mark Meadows is seeking to have his Georgia criminal case removed to federal court, and a legal analyst called out his gambit as an attempt to end his prosecution entirely.
The former White House chief of staff surprisingly took the stand at his removal hearing, where he told a judge that he was acting as a federal official when he tried to help Donald Trump overturn his election loss, and MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin told "Morning Joe" that Meadows took the risk of testifying under oath in hopes of wriggling off the hook.
"It is a threshold question," Rubin said. "If you are trying to, as a state criminal defendant, move a case to federal court on the grounds that you are a federal officer, which is what the statute requires, you first have to show you were fulfilling a federal function, right? So it's not so much, is it relevant to the conspiracy? Is it relevant or can you prove it to get your case to federal court? But, of course, the reason Meadows wants to be in federal court in the first place is so he can advance the argument ... is this presidential immunity question."
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"He is arguing that because he was a federal officer acting as the direction of the president or in cahoots with the president, it'd be improper or unconstitutional for [Fulton County district attorney] Fani Willis to prosecute him in state court," Rubin added. "The Constitution has supremacy and, therefore, he belongs in a federal court. That's a vehicle to get rid of the case entirely."
Watch the video below or at this link.
MSNBC 08 29 2023 06 10 20youtu.be
