Mark Meadows files to move Fulton county case to federal court
Mark Meadows, one of 19 people including Donald Trump who were criminally charged over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, has filed to move the case into federal court.
Meadows served as White House chief of staff under Trump. His lawyers have filed the petition to go from state to the US district court for the northern district of Georgia, arguing for the switch based on the idea that the charges stem from Meadows conduct in his capacity as an officer of the federal government.
Trump is expected to make a similar move, which would allow him to seek a potentially friendlier jury pool and the chance of landing a judge that he appointed.
“Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President,” Terwilliger wrote in the filing.
The filing also indicates that Meadows plans to file a motion to dismiss the state’s case.
We’re wrapping up our live blog for the day, but will continue to bring updates on the Guardian’s home page. Here’s a recap of what’s happened today, in the aftermath of the late-night indictment in Georgia unveiling criminal charges against Donald Trump and 18 codefendants over efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The 98-page indictmenthanded down by a Fulton county grand jury includes 41 counts of crimes, including 13 against Trump. It details lies the former president and his co-defendants told the public in an effort to keep him in power.
The charges were brought via Georgia’s Rico act, which has typically been used to go after the mafia.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff and one of his codefendants in Georgia, has filed to move the case into federal court – something that Trump himself is expected to replicate in an effort to seek a friendlier jury and land a judge that he appointed.
Another codefendant, John Eastman, who is considered one of the main architects of Trump’s strategy to overturn the 2020 election, also plans to fight the indictment.
Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, responded to Donald Trump’s announcement that he would present an “irrefutable report” on election fraud in Georgia on Monday by saying: “The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, made a brief statement saying: “The most basic principles of a strong democracy are accountability and respect for the Constitution and rule of law. You either have it, or you don’t.”
Republican politicians, including candidates for the presidency in 2024, are seeking to defend Donald Trump over the indictment in Georgia.
Hillary Clintonsaid she did not “feel any satisfaction” about Donald Trump’s extreme legal predicament and instead felt “great profound sadness”
In the separate federal case over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, Carlos de Oliveira, the property manager of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, pleaded not guilty to multiple obstruction-related offenses.
Mark Meadows files to move Fulton county case to federal court
Mark Meadows, one of 19 people including Donald Trump who were criminally charged over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, has filed to move the case into federal court.
Meadows served as White House chief of staff under Trump. His lawyers have filed the petition to go from state to the US district court for the northern district of Georgia, arguing for the switch based on the idea that the charges stem from Meadows conduct in his capacity as an officer of the federal government.
Trump is expected to make a similar move, which would allow him to seek a potentially friendlier jury pool and the chance of landing a judge that he appointed.
“Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President,” Terwilliger wrote in the filing.
The filing also indicates that Meadows plans to file a motion to dismiss the state’s case.
John Eastman, who is considered one of the main architects of Trump’s strategy to overturn the 2020 election, and is one of the defendants in the Georgia case, plans to fight the indictment, according to his lawyer.
John Eastman, an architect of plans to keep former Donald Trump in power, in Los Angeles in June. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP
“This is a legal cluster-bomb that leaves unexploded ordinances for lawyers to navigate in perpetuity,” said Eastman’s attorney Harvey Silverglate, in a statement. “It goes hand-in-glove with the recent effort to criminalize lawful political speech and legal advice.”
Eastman, an attorney himself, is also identified as a co-conspirator in the federal inquiry on the January 6 insurrection. He is facing disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California due his development of a dubious legal strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election by having former vice president Mike Pence interfere in the election certification.
The charges against Trump were brought via Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act, which essentially allows prosecutors to link together different crimes committed by different people and bring criminal charges against a larger criminal enterprise. The law requires prosecutors to show the existence of a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two underlying crimes.
Prosecutors have long used the federal Rico Act to go after the mafia. But Georgia’s version is even more expansive than the federal statute. It allows prosecutors in the state to bring racketeering charges if a defendant attempts or solicits a crime, even if they don’t bring charges for those crimes themselves.
In the indictment by the state of Georgia, the state wrote: “Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity.”
Advocacy groups are outraged after the Arkansas department of education warned state high schools not to offer an advanced placement course on African American history.
The admonition from Arkansas education officials is the latest example of conservative lawmakers limiting education on racial history, sexual orientation and other topics they label as “indoctrination”.
The Arkansas Education Association (AEA), a professional organization of educators in the state, said the latest decision is of “grave concern” to its members and other citizens worried about “the abandonment of teaching African American history and culture”.
“Having this course pulled out from under our students at this late juncture is just another marginalizing move that has already played out in other states,” said a statement from AEA president April Reisma, which was shared with the Guardian.
In a statement to the Guardian, NAACP president and chief executive officer Derrick Johnson called the decision “abhorrent” and an “attempt to strip high school students of an opportunity to get a jumpstart on their college degree”.
“Let’s be clear – the continued, state-level attacks on Black history are undemocratic and regressive,” Johnson said.
The sad reality is that these politicians are determined to neglect our nation’s youth in service of their own political agendas.
President Joe Biden traveled to a manufacturing warehouse in Wisconsin on Tuesday where he delivered remarks on the Inflation Reduction Act, a major piece of economic legislation he signed into law a year ago.
Wisconsin is among the key states where Biden needs to persuade voters that his policies are having a positive impact on their lives, but polls show that most people know little about the Act or what it does, AP reported.
“It’s really kind of basic: we just decided to invest in America again,” Biden said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
The president chose to ignore Donald Trump in his speech, but he made the economic case personal by directly challenging the state’s Republican senator Ron Johnson, who he said “believes outsourcing manufacturing jobs is a great thing”.
Administration officials say the trip is aimed at recognizing the effects of the law, which passed Congress on party-line votes. According to the White House, in Wisconsin, private firms have committed more than $3 billion in manufacturing and clean energy investments since Biden was sworn into office.
The Fulton county court clerk released a statement acknowledging that it had published on its website a document about Donald Trump being criminally charged.
At about midday on Monday, a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished.
The court clerk has now said it had been testing its system before the grand jury voted later in the day on whether to indict Trump.
Yesterday, @Reuters obtained a docket report on the Fulton County clerk’s website that appeared to detail charges against Trump.
After initially calling the docket report “fictitious,” the clerk’s office has released a statement explaining what happened: pic.twitter.com/gbowdCbVA1
Alabama Republicans defended their decision not to create a second majority-Black district in a hearing before a panel of federal judges over the state’s redrawn congressional maps.
State Republicans continue to resist court orders, including from the supreme court in June, to amend the congressional maps to give Black voters increased political power and representation.
The three-judge panel, which blocked the use of the state’s old map last year, will decide whether to let Alabama’s new districts go forward or step in and draw new congressional districts for the state. The results of the extended court battle could also determine whether Democrats pick up another seat in Congress, where Republicans currently hold a slim majority.
In a surprise June decision, the supreme court upheld the panel’s earlier finding that the state’s then map – which had one Black-majority district out of seven in a state where more than one in four residents is Black – likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act.
In response to the ruling, Alabama Republicans boosted the percentage of Black voters in the majority-white second congressional district, now represented by Republican representative Barry Moore, from about 30% to 39.9%, failing to give Black voters a majority which would allow them to elect their candidate of choice.
Florida governor and Donald Trump’s leading rival for the GOP presidential nomination in most polls,Ron DeSantis, was critical of the Georgia indictment.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, DeSantis said the indictment was “an example of this criminalization of politics. I don’t think that this is something that’s good for the country”.
He also accused Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis of using an “inordinate amount of resources” on the Trump case while failing to tackle crime.
Of course, at the center of the criminal investigation is Donald Trump. On 2 January 2021, Trump phoned the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger,pressuring him “to find 11,780 votes” – the number of ballots needed to overturn Biden’s victory in Fulton county. News reports of that hour-long phone call kicked off Willis’s investigation.
He also directed Mike Pence, then the vice-president, to reject the electoral vote in Georgia and other states revealed to be involved in what is now known as the “fake electors” scheme.
Trump is facing several other charges in different courts, including mishandling of classified documents, his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection and hush money payments to an adult film actor.
Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani, a former Trump campaign attorney and New York mayor, repeatedly spewed false claims of election fraud in the months following Biden’s 2020 victory. That December, he met with Georgia lawmakers and spewed baseless claims of election fraud such as a conspiracy by voting machine manufacturers to flip votes from Trump to Biden. The Department of Justice and the House January 6 committee have also investigated Giuliani for his role in orchestrating the false electors scheme, where Trump allies in multiple states produced fake certificates saying he won the election. A watchdog group found Giuliani to be a “central figure”. A disciplinary panel has said Giuliani should be disbarred.
Mark Meadows
Serving as Donald Trump’s chief of staff during the 2020 election and its aftermath, Meadows was at the center of hundreds of messages about how to keep Trump in power, according to texts he turned over to the House January 6 select committee. Meadows was also on the infamous phone call Trump placed to Raffensperger demanding he “find 11,780 votes”. A judge ordered Meadows to testify in the Georgia election investigation – though Meadows had repeatedly tried to avoid doing so.
Jenna Ellis
Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney and former Colorado prosecutor, spread multiple statements claiming voter fraud during the 2020 election and sent at least two memos advising Mike Pence to reject Biden’s victory in Georgia and other states. She was ordered to appear before the special grand jury in 2022. Earlier this year, the Colorado supreme court censured Ellis for making false statements and she acknowledged making misrepresentations as part of the agreement.
Kenneth Chesebro
Also known as “co-conspirator 5” in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election fraud inquiry, Chesebro has been revealed to be one of the main architects of the fake electors scheme –– which he described as a “bold, controversial plan”. The New York Times obtained a copy of a memo from Chesebro to a Wisconsin attorney laying out a three-pronged plan to overturn election results in six states, including Georgia, and keep Trump in power. Willis subpoenaed Chesebro to appear before the special grand jury but the New York-based attorney moved to quash it.
Sidney Powell
An attorney associated with Trump’s campaign after the 2020 election, Powell, who filed a lawsuit against Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, alleging voter fraud, is thought to be “co-conspirator 3” in the federal investigation by Jack Smith. Along with Rudy Giuliani, Powell appeared regularly on conservative news networks where she spewed baseless claims of election fraud, including foreign rigging of voting machines and was one of the most prominent names in the defamation case brought upon Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems, whose individual case against Powell is still pending.
Jeffrey Clark
A former justice department attorney, Clark has been identified as “co- conspirator 4” in the federal January 6 investigation. Clark allegedly tried to coerce justice department officials to sign a letter to officials in several states. He drafted a letter to Georgia officials in late December 2020 falsely claiming the justice department had “identified significant concerns” that may have impacted election results in multiple states, including Georgia –– but it remained unsent. He also reportedly plotted with Trump to oust the acting attorney general, but failed.
John Eastman
Thought to be one of the main architects of Trump’s strategy to overturn the 2020 election, Eastman – identified as “co-conspirator 2” in the federal January 6 inquiry – drafted a six-step plan that directed Mike Pence to reject Biden’s victory.
These are the people involved in the high-profile election investigation that could have far-reaching implications for Donald Trump, who may well face jail time if convicted, and his chances of winning the Republican nomination in 2024.
Fani Willis
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, a famously tough prosecutor against gangs and organized crime, is overseeing the election investigation, which she launched in 2021, just weeks after being sworn in. A career Atlanta-area criminal prosecutor, Willis has been known to aggressively use Rico, an anti-racketeering law that is stronger in Georgia than under federal statute.
Trump and his lawyers have sought to disqualify Willis from carrying out the investigation, filing motions to do so in March and July. Trump branded Willis a “young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat ‘Prosecutor’” in a Truth Social post last year. Willis, a Democrat, is the first Black woman to serve as Fulton county DA.
Robert McBurney
The Fulton county superior court judge Robert McBurney was selected to supervise the special grand jury that put together recommendations for Willis’s investigation into Trump’s behavior surrounding election results. McBurney released a partial version of the panel’s final report in February, keeping the majority of its findings under seal. Trump’s lawyers targeted McBurney, a former prosecutor, for approving Willis’s special grand jury request, asking that he disqualify her from the case.
The grand juries
Willis requested a special grand jury, assembled last May to aid her investigation into Trump and his allies’ meddling with election results. After eight months and 75 witness interviews, the jurors compiled a report with recommendations for the case. The panel was dissolved in January. Afterward, the foreperson, Emily Kohrs, hinted they recommended more than a dozen indictments, drawing backlash for her media blitz.
McBurney has empaneled two regular grand juries – and one is likely to consider charges against Trump and his allies.
Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said she accidentally ate a “magic mushroom” while on a recent trip to China.
Yellen visit to Beijing last month included a stop at a Yunnan restaurant chain, where she ate the local jian shou qing.
“So I went with this large group of people and the person who had arranged our dinner did the ordering,” she told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday.
There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later.
She said she had “read that if the mushrooms are cooked properly, which I’m sure they were at this very good restaurant, that they have no impact.” She added:
But all of us enjoyed the mushrooms, the restaurant, and none of us felt any ill effects from having eaten them.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at a lunch meeting with women economists in Beijing, China, 8 July 2023. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/EPA
Biden to visit Hawaii 'as soon as he can' after deadly wildfires
Joe Biden said he will travel to Hawaii to visit the devastation left behind by the country’s deadliest wildfires in over a century, killing at least 99 people and reducing neighborhoods to ash.
“My wife, Jill, and I are going to travel to Hawaii as soon as we can,” Biden said in his first public comments on the disaster since late last week.
I don’t want to get in the way – I’ve been to too many disaster areas, but I want to go and make sure we got everything they need. I want to be sure we don’t disrupt the ongoing recovery efforts.
President Biden says he and First Lady Jill Biden will go to Hawaii “as soon as we can”:
“I don't want to get in the way. I've been to too many disaster areas ... I want to be sure we don't disrupt the ongoing recovery efforts.” pic.twitter.com/ydZ8M3xpXv
Deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said earlier today that the White House was having “active conversations” about when the Bidens could visit.
Biden’s remarks at a wind and electric power manufacturing plant in Milwaukee were his first comments on the Maui wildfires since last week, when he declared a federal emergency. The period of silence drew criticism from Republicans, including Donald Trump.
Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation has been “disappointing” and failed to deliver protections to car industry workers confronted by the transition to electric vehicles, according to the head of the US’s leading autoworkers union, which has pointedly withheld is endorsement of the president for next year’s election.
“So far it’s been disappointing. If the IRA continues to bring sweatshops and a continued race to the bottom it will be a tragedy,” Fain said.
This is our generation’s defining moment with electric vehicles. The government should invest in US manufacturing but money can’t go to companies with no strings attached. Labor needs a seat at the table. There should be labor standards built in, this is the future of the car industry at stake.
The UAW, which is based in the car-making heartland of Detroit and has around 400,000 members, has so far refused to endorse Biden for next year’s presidential election, a major political headache for a president who has called himself a “union guy” and counts upon organized labor as a key part of his base, particularly in crucial midwest states such as Michigan.
The ire of unions has been a thorny problem in the Biden administration’s attempts to speed the proliferation of electric vehicles and cut planet-heating emissions from transportation, the largest source of US carbon pollution.
Joe Biden is talking in Milwaukee at an Ingeteam factory, a company built on the drive for clean energy that manufactures onshore wind turbine generators.
The US president is in the vital swing state of Wisconsin to talk about his “Bidenomics” policies to boost the embattled US middle class and US industries such as manufacturing, construction and semiconductor technology, especially those with strong union membership.
He’s in Wisconsin on the eve of the anniversary of his signing into law a major bipartisan legislative plank, the healthcare, climate and tax package called the Inflation Reduction Act.
The scene of Biden talking to crowds of union members cheering his touting of a “made in America” policy and green energy that he said has the potential to cheaper to power the US than fossil fuels provides a sharp contrast to his chief Republican rival for the White House, Donald Trump after the 2024 candidate hoping to return to the presidency was handed his fourth criminal indictment last night, in Georgia.
Next week, the first Republican primary season debate will be held in Milwaukee.
U.S. President Biden touts economic agenda during visit to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
US president Joe Biden just stepped up to the podium to speak in Milwaukee. Union leaders and members are there and so are some of Wisconsin’s senior Democrats, the state governor Tony Evers, US Senator Tammy Baldwin and congresswoman Gwen Moore.
After hailing his fellow Democrats, Biden is now lamenting the disastrous wildfires that have decimated parts of Maui in Hawaii.
Biden said he wants to go there as soon as it’s feasible – “as soon as I can” – but isn’t rushing there immediately so as not to “get in the way”, as a presidential visit is always a huge project for any locality.
Hello again, US politics live blog readers, it’s been a lively day so far as the ripples continue to spread from the late-night indictment unveiled in Georgia against Donald Trump and 18 codefendants, accusing them of an organized racket to overturn Trump’s defeat by Biden in one of the decisive state results of the 2020 presidential election.
There will be a lot more news in the coming hours and we’ll continue to bring it to you as it happens. US president Joe Biden is about to speak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Here’s where things stand:
Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, responded to Donald Trump’s announcement that he would present an “irrefutable report” on election fraud in Georgia on Monday by saying: “The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”
Hunter Biden’s lead criminal defense attorney, Christopher Clark,asked a federal judge for permission to withdraw from the criminal case involving his client on the grounds he might be called to testify as a witness in future proceedings.
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, made a brief statement saying: “The most basic principles of a strong democracy are accountability and respect for the Constitution and rule of law. You either have it, or you don’t.”
Carlos de Oliveira, the property manager of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, pleaded not guilty to multiple obstruction-related offenses in the case related to the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Republican politicians, including candidates for the presidency in 2024, are seeking to defend Donald Trump over the indictment in Georgia.
Hillary Clintonsaid she did not “feel any satisfaction” about Donald Trump’s extreme legal predicament and instead felt “great profound sadness”.
Donald Trumpsaid he would present an “irrefutable report” on election fraud in Georgia on Monday at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Yes. The US constitution does not prohibit anyone charged with a crime, nor anyone convicted of one, from holding office.
The 14th amendment, however, does bar anyone who has taken an oath to protect the United States and engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
Relying on that provision, a slew of separate civil lawsuits in state courts are expected in the near future to try to bar Trump from holding office.
