Appeals court rejects Mark Meadows' request to move Georgia election charges to federal court
The former White House chief of staff is one of five of Donald Trump's co-defendants who sought to move their cases from state to federal court.
Bart JansenA federal appeals court refused Wednesday to reconsider former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request to move his Georgia racketeering charges to federal court, where he has argued the charges should be dismissed.
Meadows, one of former President Donald Trump’s 14 remaining co-defendants in the case, had argued that he should be shielded from state charges because his actions that resulted in charges were part of his federal job.
But a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his request.
Meadows then asked the full 11th Circuit to consider his request – and he was unanimously rejected.
The decision leaves Meadows the choice of appealing to the Supreme Court. As part of the appeal, Meadows hired Paul Clement, a former solicitor general noted for arguing before the high court.
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Neither the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, nor Meadows’ lawyer immediately responded to a request for comment.
Here is what we know about Meadows' case:
Defendants are challenging Georgia prosecution
Meadows was charged with Trump and 17 others in what prosecutors say was a sprawling conspiracy to reverse President Joe Biden's 2020 victory in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty.
Trump and several of the remaining defendants have asked Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee to remove local prosecutors from the case. Final arguments in that dispute are scheduled Friday.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade have acknowledged a romantic relationship, which the defendants argue should disqualify them, but which they testified has nothing to do with the case.
What charges does Meadows face?
Meadows is charged with racketeering and with soliciting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office during a call on Jan. 2, 2021, when Trump asked him to "find" enough votes to overtake President Joe Biden's winning margin.
The indictment describes Meadows attending a White House meeting with Trump and Michigan lawmakers, sending messages to Pennsylvania lawmakers, requesting a memo regarding “disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021,” visiting a nonpublic audit of Georgia voting and arranging the Raffensperger call.
Meadows testified at his hearing in U.S. District Court that arranging calls and setting up meetings for the president were part of his job. But prosecutors and judges noted Meadows offered no limits to what the job entailed.
The 11th Circuit panel ruled that former federal officials aren't protected from state level charges. Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in his decision for Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Nancy Abudu that even if the law applied to Meadows, "the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows's official duties."
Pryor was appointed by George W. Bush, Rosenbaum by Barack Obama and Abudu by Joe Biden.
Who else wants to move their Georgia charges to federal court?
Besides Meadows, four other co-defendants have argued they should be protected from state-level charges because they served in federal posts for the acts charged in the indictment.
The best known is Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general, who is charged with drafting a letter for the attorney general to sign that allegedly raised false allegations of voter fraud in Georgia.
The three others were charged as Republican presidential electors who allegedly met and submitted false documents to support Trump's claim that he had won in Georgia: state Republican Chairman David Shafer, state Sen. Shawn Still and Cathy Latham.
