Mark Meadows asked the Supreme Court to recognize his 'just following orders defense. A right-wing justice wasn't buying [View all]

Source: Business Insider

Apr 28, 2024, 7:00 AM EDT


Before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in former President Donald Trump's immunity case, Mark Meadows tried to get his foot in the door. The high court had agreed to decide whether former presidents can enjoy legal immunity from criminal charges for actions taken during their presidency. Trump hoped that a decision would scuttle the indictment against him over his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — a result that now seems unlikely, even though the trial will likely be delayed until after the 2024 presidential election.

Meadows, a former Republican member of Congress, served as Trump's chief of staff in the final year of his White House administration. He was criminally charged alongside Trump in a separate case, brought by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Atlanta, over a plot to erase now-President Joe Biden's electoral victory in Georgia. Judges have denied Meadows's attempts to move his criminal case to federal court, which could be more favorable legal territory. His lawyers have leaned on the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which protects the federal government from the meddling of state-level officials.

Despite the lower-court losses, Meadows nonetheless asked the Supreme Court to recognize that the president's subordinates should have immunity from criminal prosecution — in both federal or state-level cases — because they were just doing their job by following the president's instructions. His lawyers said the court should recognize immunity for Meadows even if Trump himself doesn't have immunity.

"If the Court addresses or resolves the question whether a president may act in a non-official capacity while in office and thereby lose the protection of presidential immunity, the Court should make clear that its ruling does not reach the conduct of subordinate federal officials who, like Meadows, generally assisted the former President as part of their federal roles," his lawyers wrote in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-mark-meadows-trump-just-following-orders-immunity-defense-2024-4