'Invertebrate' Mark Meadows’ 'bogus arguments' likely to be 'rejected' in court: law professor

22 August 2023

Georgetown University Law Professor Neal Katyal, during a Tuesday interview with MSNBC's Nicole Wallace, spoke to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' request to move his Georgia case to federal court.

Meadows is one of the 18 individuals who were indicted by a Fulton County Superior Court grand jury alongside ex-President Donald Trump earlier this month on charges related to their attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

"Neal, what do you think is going on with Mark Meadows and why not just go ahead and turn himself in, and if he succeeds in his efforts to move his case to federal court — there's nothing about being booked that makes that more difficult," Wallace said.

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The professor replied, "Yeah, I think Meadows has been someone who has been talking out of both sides of his mouth, and The New York Times has a news story about that right now. You know, in a way he seems like a perfect Trump henchman. He is like a invertebrate who doesn't have a commitment to principle or anything else, so it is not surprising he finds himself in this position. I think that dance is unlikely to work in the future. He has so far avoided a federal indictment from Jack Smith, the special counsel, but I think patience is wearing thin, and Georgia, of course, called him on it and said, 'No, the stuff that you did, Mark Meadows, culminates in a criminal indictment,' He committed crimes."

Katyal continued, "Meadows has filed two different pieces of paper, Nicole, one is to say this belongs in federal court, not state court, and the other is to say he is absolutely immune from prosecution. Both are, you know, poppycock to put it mildly. The removal — for him to move from state prosecution to a federal courthouse requires him to say that he's performing a federal function, and it is true that the president or the chief of staff to the president have broad powers under our constitution, but the one place our founders said that the line stops, the place where the president is cut out is the electoral college for the most important of reasons. That's the place in which a sitting president has the most self-interest, he can self-deal. Our founders, you know, cut them out of that."

He emphasized, "So Meadows and Trump were not performing a federal function. They certainly weren't trying to safeguard the integrity of the election process like the cockamamie things they say. Of course not. They were just trying — they were in it for themselves, trying to launch a coup. Then this other idea that Meadows is absolutely immune as Trump has been tweeting this as well — I can't think of anything more ridiculous. First of all, back in the [ex-President Richard] Nixon administration, Nixon's chief of staff went to prison for Watergate. He didn't get some absolute immunity or anything like that. And if this argument were true, Nicole, it would mean [President Joe] Biden and his current chief of staff, Jeff Zions, could install Biden as the next president in 2024, and throw out the popular vote. That can't possibly be how the law works. Our constitution never worked that way. These are bogus arguments through and through and they will be rejected in due course."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal on Mark Meadows' attempt to move GA case to federal courtwww.youtube.com

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