Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally for Republican U.S. senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, ahead of their January runoff elections to determine control of the U.S. Senate, in Valdosta, Georgia, Dec. 5, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump may seek to have his Georgia election interference criminal case moved to federal court from state court, his lawyer said in a filing Thursday.
Trump now has a month to file a formal notice of removal of the case to federal court in Georgia, his defense attorney Steven Sadow noted in the filing in Fulton County Superior Court.
If he does seek removal, Trump would join several other defendants in the Georgia conspiracy case in doing so, among them his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Under the law, a federal official can ask to transfer a state case to federal court if the issues in a case relate “to any act under color of such office.”
Trump and 18 other defendants were indicted last month by a Fulton County grand jury on charges related to an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden. All the defendants have pleaded not guilty in the case.
A federal trial could give Trump, and other defendants, an advantage, because the jury pool might contain more Republicans than in Fulton County, and he might draw a judge whom he appointed to the bench when he was president.
Trump, in that venue, also might be able to claim that he is immune from prosecution on the state charges because he was acting as president when the alleged crimes were committed.