Amicus Brief

The bottom line:

"The conduct charged here by the Fulton County District Attorney— interference by Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia in order to aid Donald Trump’s candidacy—bore no connection to any duty of Mr. Meadows’s, Mr. Clark’s, or Mr. Trump’s office. Neither the president nor anyone else in the executive branch has any duty to superintend or participate in a State’s selection of its presidential electors. And there is no plausible basis for Mr. Meadows or Mr. Clark to claim Supremacy Clause immunity, protection under the First or Fourteenth Amendment, or any other federal defense to the charges. Finally, the purpose of the federal-officer removal statute--to protect federal operations by preventing retribution in state court for locally unpopular exercises of federal authority--would not be served by removal here. To the contrary, removal would be perverse, as this prosecution arises from interference with state-government operations and seeks to vindicate Georgia's voice in a federal election, the very contest from which federal authority flows."