Following his indictment alongside former President Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows moved to have the case removed to federal court.
But even if the motion succeeded, the on-paper advantages of changing the venue — particularly changes to the jury pool — are unlikely to be what Meadows and Trump are hoping for, argued former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance on MSNBC Tuesday evening.
"Moving this case to federal court has, I guess, the advantage of a different and presumably more sympathetic jury pool," said anchor Alex Wagner. "How meaningful do you think that that will be for someone like Mark Meadows?"
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"So I think sometimes, we get too comfortable talking about juries as though they are voting pools, right?" said Vance. "We think about juries — how does that county vote? In my experience as a prosecutor, people's political beliefs really don't impact their jury service. Judges do a great job of telling them that they have to decide cases based on the evidence and the law that they're instructed on and that they hear in the courtroom, and that they need to leave at the door any biases that they might have, including their political affiliation. You know, we know juries are really good at doing that."
"So while Meadows and some of the other defendants, Trump, may perceive some advantage in moving into federal court, where the jury pool exceeds Fulton County — it goes up into Georgia's northern counties on the east, it touches Alabama, so, some very conservative parts of the state — they may perceive an advantage," said Vance. However, "In reality, there may not really be a big one there."
"But even if there isn't an advantage, I think Joyce would agree with me that, what this shows is the opportunity for a delay," cut in NBC legal correspondent Laura Jarrett, also on the panel. "This indictment hasn't even been baked for 24 hours, and already they have a removal motion going."
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