Trump tells Georgia judge he 'may' try to move case to federal court: report
Former President Donald Trump's attorney Steven Sadow notified Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday that he "may" seek to move his trial in District Attorney Fani Willis' Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case to federal court, CNN's Marshall Cohen reports.
Willis indicted Trump and eighteen of his associates in August for allegedly conspiring to steal Georgia's sixteen Electoral College votes following Trump's loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
"There are several potential benefits for Trump if he can move the state case into federal court," Cohen writes. "It would give him additional avenues to get the charges dropped if he can convince a judge that his alleged actions in the indictment were tied to his formal duties as a government official. If the case stays in federal court, the jurors will all come from Fulton County, which President Joe Biden won by a 47-point margin. If the case moves to federal court, the jury pool will be culled from a 10-county region near Atlanta that Biden won by 32 points, a narrower but still comfortable margin."
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Cohen adds, "Several of Trump's 19 co-defendants are already attempting to move their case to federal court. His former chief of staff Mark Meadows testified at a hearing last week as part of his bid to move the case. Further hearings are scheduled for later this month on whether a federal judge will weigh similar requests from former Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and other co-defendants."
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Cohen's analysis is available at this link.
This is a breaking news and developing story.
