Lawyers for former President Donald Trump informed the judge overseeing his case in Fulton County, Ga., that he “may” seek to move it to a federal court, according to a Thursday report.
The move is linked to claims that Trump should be protected under immunity for federal officials, as his legal team has previously stated.
“President Trump hereby notifies the Court that he may seek removal of his prosecution to federal court,” attorney Steven Sadow said in a brief court filing. “To be timely, his notice of removal must be filed within 30 days of his arraignment.”
Trump waived his right to an arraignment hearing late last month. He formally pleaded not guilty to the charges, including racketeering under Georgia law, on Aug. 31, and had 30 days from that date to file to move his case to federal court.
There are some legal advantages for Trump if he can successfully move his entire case to a federal court. For one, if he is able to persuade a federal judge that his alleged actions following the 2020 election in Georgia were connected to his official duties, that will provide him a wider avenue to get the charges tossed out.
“If the case stays in state 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,” CNN reported.
Several others among the 18 others charged along with Trump by District Attorney Fani Willis are also attempting to move their cases 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,” CNN added.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a New York state judge rejected Donald Trump’s plea to postpone the commencement of the scheduled trial on October 2nd in Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud lawsuit accusing the former president, his family, and the Trump Organization of artificially inflating the value of his assets.
On Tuesday evening, Trump’s legal team requested to “briefly” postpone the trial until three weeks after Justice Arthur F. Engoron had issued rulings on both parties’ requests for summary judgments. Those requests aimed to secure victories on various legal matters without the necessity of a trial.
