In a court filing on Monday, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said that he would be appealing a judge’s decision to refuse his request to transfer the case to federal court after he was charged in Georgia with seeking to contest the 2020 election for Trump.
Mark Meadows, now on trial for election racketeering in Georgia, has sought a federal appeals court to delay the trial because he is immune from prosecution as former White House chief of staff for President Donald Trump. Prosecutors, however, argue there is no need to wait since he is unlikely to win the argument.
Since the trial for at least 19 of the co-defendants is set to begin on October 23, a decision on whether to postpone the state case against Meadows might be made swiftly by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court of appeals indicated how it would first respond to Meadows’ inquiry. The judge has ordered the prosecution and defense to argue whether a former or present federal official has the right to transfer the matter to federal court.
At least five of the codefendants have petitioned to have their cases transferred to federal court, making the appeal very consequential. Similarly, Trump has hinted that he may want to be relocated.
Meadows was indicted on August 14 with Trump and 17 others for activities that he says were inherent to his work but were part of a larger conspiracy. Everyone has entered not guilty pleas. Meadows filed a motion to transfer and dismiss his lawsuit in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones denied his motion on Friday, finding that his acts were clearly political and that the states must be allowed to control their own elections under the Constitution. Jones decided that what Meadows did exceeded “the outside parameters of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff.”
Jones did not agree on Wednesday to put the state case on hold pending an appeal.
