Don’t Let Donald Trump Take His Case to Federal Court

Now that Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has indicted former President Donald Trump for his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Trump’s first chessboard move is likely to be a motion to “remove” the case—that is, to transfer it from state court in Atlanta to federal court in the Northern District of Georgia. This maneuver shouldn’t work, as it didn’t work in July in New York, but once it happens, two things are sure: It will command our attention, and it will introduce a potential for delay—Trump’s favorite sort of ploys. Federal law provides that a prosecution begun in a state court may, within 30 days, be “removed” to federal court if it relates to “any act” by “any officer of the United States” taken “under color of such office.”

This requirement, under long-standing Supreme Court , means that the conduct must have involved performance of the officer’s job, and the officer must