An ex-Department of Justice official and three Georgia Republicans who served as electors for former President Donald Trump appealed rulings that kept their election subversion case in Fulton County.
On Friday, former state GOP head David Shafer, state Sen. Shawn Still and Cathy Latham, the former chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party, asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to move their case from state to federal court. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark made a similar move on Monday, asking for proceedings against him in Fulton Superior Court to be paused while his appeal plays out in the court system.
Their separate actions came a week after U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones determined that all four did not meet the burden to move their case under the more than 200-year-old federal removal statute.
Removal would grant the defendants a slightly more conservative jury pool that encompasses a wide swath of metro Atlanta, not just Fulton County.
The four were among the 19 people who were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in August for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
During a hearing before Jones last month, attorneys for Shafer, Still and Latham argued their clients were acting as federal officials when they met on Dec. 14, 2020, to cast ballots and sign paperwork proclaiming that Trump had won the state — even though multiple vote counts had showed that Democrat Joe Biden was the winner.
Clark’s lawyer argued during a separate hearing that his client was acting within his scope as a Justice Department official, noting that Trump had sought out Clark’s advice on the 2020 election.
In the weeks following the election, Clark prepared a document that said the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of Georgia,” the indictment said. It urged Georgia officials to consider appointing a new slate of presidential electors.
Five of the Fulton defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have attempted — so far unsuccessfully — to move proceedings to federal court. Meadows appealed to the 11th Circuit last month. A hearing on the matter has yet to be held, and against him continue to move forward in Fulton Superior Court.
About the Author
