A federal judge has rejected a request from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move the election-interference case against him from Georgia state court to federal court.
Meadows’s argument rested on the fact that he was a federal officer when the alleged crimes occurred. His request cited a federal law that allows defendants charged with crimes while carrying out their official duties to be prosecuted in federal court, even in cases that involve state law and state prosecutors.
U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones wrote in his ruling today that Meadows had not met the “‘quite low’ threshold for removal” because his actions undertaken on behalf of the Trump campaign fell outside the scope of his federal role.
“The Court finds that the color of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff did not include working with or working for the Trump campaign, except for simply coordinating the President’s schedule, traveling with the President to his campaign events, and redirecting communications to the campaign,” Jones wrote. “Thus, consistent with his testimony and the federal statutes and regulations, engaging in political activities is exceeds the outer limits of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff.”
The judge added that the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity in the workplace, was “helpful in defining the outer limits of the scope the White House Chief of Staff’s authority.”
“These prohibitions on executive branch employees (including the White House Chief of Staff) reinforce the Court’s conclusion that Meadows has not shown how his actions relate to the scope of his federal executive branch office. Federal officer removal is thereby inapposite,” Jones wrote.
Meadows’s strategy was to try to get the case moved to federal court where it could be dismissed more easily under the argument that he is immune from prosecution related to actions performed in the course of his normal work.
He is one of 19 defendants who have been indicted by a Georgia grand jury in connection with their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential-election results in the Peach State.
Former president Donald Trump is facing 13 felony charges, including conspiracy to commit forgery, filing false documents, solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, and violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Other defendants named in the 98-page indictment include several members of Trump’s former legal team: Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell.
Additional Trump allies charged in connection with Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’s investigation include pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, Trump campaign official Mike Roman, lawyer Robert Cheeley, former Georgia GOP chairman and fake elector David Shafer, fake elector Shawn Still, pastor Stephen Lee, Black Voices for Trump leader Harrison Floyd, publicist Trevian Kutti, lawyer Ray Smith, and three officials connected to the Coffee County voting-systems breach: Cathy Latham, Scott Hall, and Misty Hampton.
“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” the indictment reads. “That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.”
All 19 of the defendants are facing racketeering charges.
Prosecutors allege that individuals involved in the efforts “engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury.” The indictment says 161 separate acts were undertaken to advance the “criminal conspiracy.”
Meadows is one of five co-defendants who sought to move their cases to federal court, including Clark, the former DOJ official; Shafer, the former Georgia GOP chairman; Still, a Georgia state senator; and Latham, a former GOP chairwoman for Coffee County. Jones previously indicated that his ruling in the Meadows case would likely serve as precedent in the other cases.
Meadows now has the opportunity to appeal the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.