Meadows urging judge to block subpoena in Georgia election probe

by Julia Shapero - 10/25/22 3:33 PM ET

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urged a South Carolina judge on Monday to block a subpoena from a Georgia probe investigating interference in the 2020 election.

Meadows claimed in Monday’s filing that the Georgia probe cannot require him, as a South Carolina resident, to testify, because it is not a criminal investigation.

Since Meadows does not live in Georgia, the probe must get the approval of a judge in his home state of South Carolina to compel his testimony. However, Meadows urged the court in Pickens County, S.C., to deny the request, arguing that South Carolina’s law on out-of-state witnesses does not apply to a civil inquiry such as the Georgia probe.

Meadows also sought to assert executive privilege and claimed that the subpoena is no longer relevant since he was originally supposed to appear on Sept. 27.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is running the Georgia investigation, subpoenaed Meadows in late August. She cited the former White House chief of staff’s December 2020 visit to Georgia to observe a post-election audit and his participation in a January 2021 call between former President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in her request for Meadows’s testimony.

In the now-infamous call between Trump and Raffensperger, the former president asked the Georgia official to “find” 11,780 more votes for him in the state.

Meadows is one of several major Trump allies who have been subpoenaed by Willis in the investigation over the former president’s alleged efforts to pressure state officials into overturning election results.

A fellow South Carolinian, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) has also sought to block a subpoena from the Georgia probe. After a lower appeals court declined to halt the testimony, Graham submitted an emergency application to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas granted Graham’s request on Monday, just days before the senator was expected to respond to the investigation.