In response to Mark Meadows’ motion to move his RICO trial to federal court under the provision that allows people acting “under color” of their federal office should be tried in federal court, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis noted that Meadows wasn’t acting as White House Chief of Staff and in fact, would have been violating federal law if he was acting in his capacity as Chief of Staff by meddling in Georgia’s vote count.
In his Notice, the defendant makes no mention of the fact that every single one of the activities giving rise to his indictment constitutes impermissible political activity which a Chief of Staff may not lawfully perform “under color of office.” As noted above, federal law forbids any employee of the executive branch from “us[ing] his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” Federal employees are expressly prohibited from using their official title or position while participating in political activity, which is defined as activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, partisan political group, or candidate for partisan political office