A pair of Georgia alternative electors charged in President Donald Trump‘s sweeping racketeering case will have a Sept. 20 hearing over their bid to remove their case to federal court.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ordered an evidentiary hearing for Cathleen Latham and David Shafer, who both posed as fake electors and were charged among 17 others (including Trump) as part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis‘s criminal investigation, which came to a head with a grand jury indictment earlier this month.
Another alternate elector, Republican Georgia Sen. Shawn Still, has also requested to have his case tried in federal court. Other defendants, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, began the trend last week to have their cases removed from state court.
Latham, Shafer, and Still each argue the role of electors was a federal position. Legal experts have said one of the benefits of removing the case to federal court was the defendants’ potential access to a broader (and more politically diverse) jury pool, compared to the solidly Democratic Fulton County state jurisdiction.
To have state cases transferred to federal court, defendants must show they were federal officers performing federal duties at the time of an alleged crime and typically must raise a plausible federal defense. In the case of the alternate electors, they say that they are immune from state prosecution because state laws are preempted by federal laws and they were acting in a federal capacity at the time of their alleged crime.
On Monday, Meadows took the stand in Atlanta for more than three hours at the all-day hearing over his bid to chart a path to federal court, which ended with Jones promising a ruling as soon as possible, noting that Jones acknowledged Meadows’s arraignment was set for Sept. 6. Experts told CNN that Meadows’s treatment over his removal bid could serve as a bellwether for how other prosecutions in the case will proceed.
Jones also gave an order in Meadows’s case on Tuesday asking for more briefing from each side on whether it takes only one act by the former chief of staff made under the color of his federal office to justify removal.
“Would a finding that at least one (but not all) of the overt acts charged occurred under the color of Meadows’s office, be sufficient for federal removal of a criminal prosecution?” Jones asked, adding that parties should file their briefs no later than 5 p.m. local time on Thursday.
Bradley Moss, an attorney specializing in national security law, responded to the order and said it’s a “valid question.”
“If meadows was acting under color of federal law even a little bit, is that enough to get it removed to federal court? Won’t be enough for immunity but might be enough for removal,” Moss wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The three alternative electors and every defendant in the case are facing one count of violating Georgia’s racketeering law, which is part of the 41-count indictment.
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Latham faces six conspiracy counts and four other charges, including impersonating a public officer, forgery, false statements and writings, and criminal attempt to commit filing false documents. Shafer is facing two counts of forgery and three counts of false statements and writings, on top of one count of criminal intent to file false documents and one count of impersonating a public officer.
Clark is set to go before Jones on Sept. 18 for his evidentiary hearing, and a hearing over Still’s request has not been established.
