Legal experts called out former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark after he asked for an emergency stay of criminal proceedings against him in Fulton County and demanded a response from a judge within hours.
An attorney for Clark, a former environmental Justice Department lawyer that former President Donald Trump sought to elevate to acting attorney general to pursue his debunked election fraud claims, filed an emergency motion on Tuesday seeking to prevent Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wilis from issuing a warrant for his arrest after he was indicted by a grand jury alongside Trump and 17 others on racketeering charges.
Clark, who like several other co-defendants is also seeking to move the case to federal court by arguing that the indictment relates to his official duties as a federal official, asked U.S. District Judge Steven Jones to respond by 5 pm on Tuesday to avoid "the choice of making rushed travel arrangements to fly into Atlanta or instead risking being labeled a fugitive."
Jones rejected Clark's request and gave Willis until 3 pm on Wednesday to respond and will not allow Clark to file a reply.
UPDATE: The judge handling efforts by Trump's codefendants to remove their cases to federal court gives Fani Willis until tomorrow at 3pm to respond to Jeff Clark's motion to stay the proceedings. He won't permit Clark to reply. https://t.co/hbhMk5cbMR pic.twitter.com/73fnkYfyo9
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 22, 2023
Legal experts were stunned at Clark's request.
"This indictment was unsealed Monday night. Clark could have filed motions and sought some kind of relief *before* today. Hey Jeff Clark: Don't look now, but your entitlement is showing," MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"I must confess that in my thirty years as a litigator, not once did I have occasion to tell a federal judge that he had a deadline he had to meet so that I would not have to make 'rushed travel arrangements,'" quipped attorney George Conway.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said Clark's "ridiculous" filing was the "strangest motion so far of any of Trump's co-defendants in Georgia."
"Clark's 'emergency motion' makes him the Karen of criminal defendants," Vance wrote on Substack. "He has hired a lawyer whose bio suggests that he has handled many complicated civil matters involving business litigation, breach of contract, fraud, will contests, conservatorship, guardianship, and trusts and estate work, but no criminal law. Clark might have done well to heed the advice that Trump White House Counsel's Office lawyer Eric Herschmann gave Clark's co-defendant John Eastman: 'Get a great effing criminal defense lawyer.'"
Clark, as well as former chief of staff Mark Meadows, are seeking to remove the charges to federal court, where they argue that they are immune from state charges under the Constitution because they were carrying out their duties as federal officials. Clark is also arguing that the case should be civil because it was initially handled by a special-purpose grand jury.
"This argument is laughably wrong," Vance wrote. "A grand jury proceeding is criminal, not civil in nature, operating under criminal rules of procedure and adjudicating criminal matters. Nor is there any grand jury matter left to remove. The special grand jury's work is complete, and they played no role in indicting the case. That decision was left up to a separate grand jury. That's how Georgia law works, whether Clark likes it or not."
Meadows is also asking a federal judge to intervene before prosecutors issue a warrant for his arrest. Meadows' attorney asked Willis to delay his arrest until Jones can make a ruling, which is expected next week, which the district attorney rejected.
"I am not granting any extensions," Willis wrote in an email to Meadows' attorneys Tuesday morning, according to Politico. "I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction. The two weeks was a tremendous courtesy."
"At 12:30 pm on Friday I shall file warrants in the system," Willis warned.
