First, to recap, Meadows is charged in state court with conspiracy to violate Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The introduction to the Georgia Indictment states:
Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on
November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.
The Indictment attributes several acts of racketeering to Meadows, including, overt act 112 which as the judge notes, is the same conduct alleged in in Count 28 of the Indictment, (solicitation of a public officer to violate his oath of office).
The judge writes that the state conceded Meadows was a federal official at the time of the alleged acts in the Georgia case, so the only question is whether the alleged acts were conducted within the scope of his federal position and duties.
After reviewing case law and the statutes, the judge proceeds to bury Meadows:
[T]o establish a RICO conspiracy the State only need prove that any co-conspirator committed one overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy, whether the overt act was specifically charged in the Indictment or not. In other words, the State can prove its RICO charge against Meadows by showing any one of his co-Defendants committed any overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy— whether that overt act is in the Indictment or not.
Donald Trump filed a notice (available here) last week saying he was likely to request the Georgia state case be moved to federal court.
The Meadows ruling does not bode well for Trump, or for that matter any of the other defendants seeking removal to federal court.
