Mark Meadows to again argue for federal removal in Georgia election interference case

(ATLANTA) — A panel of judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments Friday from former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as he continues his effort to move the election interference charges against him in Georgia out of state court and into federal court.

Meadows was charged in Fulton County this summer, alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others, with conspiring to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. He pleaded not guilty and has since unsuccessfully sought to remove the case to federal court based on a law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.

“This is not a case where the Chief of Staff went down to Georgia in his private capacity and got in some kerfuffle; it is a criminal prosecution of the Chief of Staff based on actions taken in the White House while discharging his official duties,” Meadows’ attorneys wrote in one brief for the appeals court. “He is here solely because he served as chief of staff.”

The appeal from Meadows came after a federal judge in September denied his request to move his case to federal court, finding that Meadows’ actions as charged in the indictment “were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign” — not on behalf of his duties with the federal government.

“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,” U.S. District Judge Steve Jones wrote in his order denying Meadows’ request.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office, in their brief to the appeals court, argued that Meadows’ conduct “advanced his and Trump’s personal interests” — not the government’s.

A panel is set to hear arguments from Meadows’ legal team and the DA’s office on Friday morning in Atlanta. It was not immediately clear if Meadows would personally attend.

During an August evidentiary hearing on the matter, Meadows personally took the stand for hours, recounting in detail his months working as the right-hand man to then-President Trump.

“I don’t know that I did anything that was outside of my role as chief of staff,” Meadows testified.

Jones wrote in his order that the court gave “less weight” to Meadows’ testimony on the stand, and highlighted the fact that Meadows “was unable to explain the limits of his authority, other than his inability to stump for the President or work on behalf of the campaign.”

“The Court finds that Meadows did not adequately convey the outer limits of his authority, and thus, the Court gives that testimony less weight,” the order said.

Four other defendants charged as part of the case also moved for federal removal. All of them were denied by Jones.

Donald Trump had initially signaled his own intention in state court to remove the case, but he later abandoned that effort, with his attorneys writing in a subsequent court filing that they would fight the case in state court — a decision the filing said was based on Trump’s “well-founded confidence that this Honorable Court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case.”

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