Meadows fights to move Georgia election interference case

23ABC News

A federal judge could soon decide whether former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows can have his case moved to federal court. The judge set a Thursday deadline for the decision.

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00:00 Turning now to new developments in the Georgia election interference case.

00:05 A federal judge could soon decide whether former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

00:09 can have his case moved to federal court.

00:12 The judge setting a Thursday deadline for the decision.

00:14 ABC's Justin Finch has more from Washington.

00:18 In Atlanta, Fulton County prosecutors and attorneys for former Trump White House Chief

00:23 of Staff Mark Meadows closing in on a deadline to respond to a federal judge's order.

00:29 By 5 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, Georgia District Judge Stephen Jones expects replies from

00:34 both parties to a key question.

00:37 The judge asking if at least one of Meadows' actions with state election officials falls

00:43 within the scope of his Chief of Staff role, would that entitle Meadows to move his case

00:48 to federal court as he requests?

00:51 Meadows testified Monday that he does not believe anything he did was outside of his

00:56 duties.

00:57 Mr. President, I'll turn it over to you.

00:59 But prosecutors argue Meadows' arranging of this January 2021 phone call between Trump

01:06 and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was political activity, which is banned under

01:12 the Hatch Act for federal employees like Meadows.

01:15 So what are we going to do here, folks?

01:16 I only need 11,000 votes.

01:19 Trump and Meadows are among the 19 defendants charged by the Fulton County D.A. with trying

01:24 to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

01:28 Many of them are expected to be arraigned next week, including former Trump lawyer Rudy

01:33 Giuliani.

01:34 In a separate civil case for Giuliani, a D.C. federal judge awarded a default judgment for

01:40 Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss after the judge said Giuliani repeatedly

01:46 ignored evidence discovery requests.

01:49 The mother and daughter sued Giuliani, saying he falsely accused them of tampering with

01:54 election ballots.

01:55 Ruby Freeman and Shea Freeman Moss and one other gentleman quite obviously surreptitiously

02:01 passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine.

02:07 Giuliani recently admitting those statements were false.

02:11 And the judge said a trial held later this year or early 2024 will determine how much

02:17 Giuliani will have to pay in damages.

02:19 Justin Finch, ABC News, Washington.

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