Mark Meadows taps former Bush solicitor general to fight Georgia RICO case

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Washington Examiner

Former President Donald Trump's ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows is seeking to bolster his legal defense in his fight against charges in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case, hiring veteran appellate attorney and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement.

Meadows said he is adding to his legal team Clement, who worked for the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush from 2004 to 2008, as well as partner Erin Murphy and associate Zachary Lustbader, according to a new court filing.

 

 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled against the former president's ex-chief of staff last month, ruling 3-0 on his bid to move the Fulton County, Georgia, election racketeering charges to federal court. Meadows on Tuesday asked for the full 12-member appeals court to rehear his case in adding Clement and company to his defense team, court records show.

 

 

Clement, who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, has a history of representing some conservatives, as well as their causes, before the justices.

 

On Jan. 17, Clement is slated to argue at the Supreme Court on behalf of a group of fishermen challenging the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, which forces them to forfeit 20% of their earnings to pay for at-sea monitors on their boats. The not-so-secret purpose of the case is also to convince the high court to do away with or revise the so-called Chevron doctrine, a 1984 legal precedent that tells courts to defer to a federal agency's interpretation of laws enacted by Congress and the president, even though many are written ambiguously.

Clement was notably one of four lawyers contacted by the Trump White House in 2017 to defend the then-president in the wake of an FBI investigation into alleged ties with Russia, but Clement declined to represent the then-president.

In July, Clement was also floated by presidential long-shot GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as one of several names he would appoint to sit on the Supreme Court if given the opportunity to name a justice to the bench.

Clement also argued for Hobby Lobby's right to exclude contraception to women workers and defended the Defense of Marriage Act, the law that banned same-sex marriage before it was overturned by the Supreme Court.