A federal appeals court has rejected former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows' request to move his Georgia election subversion case from state to federal court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit's decision upholds a lower-court ruling made in September that found Meadows did not prove his alleged conduct charged as part of the sweeping criminal racketeering case was related to his official duties as former United States President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff.
Mark Meadows' Georgia Case
The official was indicted alongside the former president and 17 other individuals in August on charges that they illegally conspired to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia. Meadows had pleaded not guilty and sought to move his case to federal court.
He claimed protections under a federal statute that allows federal officials to move legal cases against them from state to federal court when the charges are tied to official duties. On Friday, a three-judge appellate court panel heard arguments on Meadows' appeal, as per the Washington Post.
Chief Judge William Pryor and Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Nancy Abudu appeared skeptical of the former chief of staff's claims that his alleged actions outlined in the Fulton County indictment were tied to his official government duties.
In the 49-page opinion on Monday, which was written by Pryor, the appeals court ruled that the federal removal statute "does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows' official duties."
Pryor added that even if the former chief of staff was "an officer," his participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties. The ruling affirmed a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones, who rejected Meadows' removal effort.
The development comes as Meadows was the first of five defendants to file motions to move the case to federal court. Additionally, the appeals court's decision on the matter will most likely make it difficult for his co-defendants to successfully move their cases to federal court, according to CNN.
Violating RICO Law
In August, Fulton County prosecutors charged Meadows and accused him of violating Georgia's RICO law. He also allegedly tried to solicit Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office.
The charges against the former chief of staff concern a heated phone call where Meadows and Trump pressed Raffensperger to overturn the 2020 election results. The appeals court judges were extremely critical in their ruling of Meadows' conduct.
Trump's lawyer, on the other hand, went on the offensive on Monday by issuing a filing with Georgia Judge Scott McAfee. They asked him for the charges against the former president to be dropped because they violated his "core political speech."
Meanwhile, in the federal election interference case, Trump's lawyers asked an appeals court to reconsider their ruling last month that upheld a gag order against the former president. They argued that it conflicted with decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Yahoo News.
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