Appeals court declines to rehear Mark Meadows’ bid to move Georgia case

A federal appeals court declined on Tuesday to reconsider former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s request to transfer his 2020 election interference case in Georgia to federal court, closing off his last-ditch attempt to move the potential trial to a more favorable venue.

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The decision from the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit means Meadows will face the racketeering charges brought by the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis in state court in Atlanta unless he makes a final challenge to the US supreme court and it agrees to hear the case.

But the denial for Meadows was emphatic. “The petition for rehearing en banc is denied, no judge in regular active service on the court having requested that the court be polled en rehearing en banc,” the unsigned, one-page order said.

The next move for Meadows was unclear. Local counsel for Meadows could not immediately be reached for comment.

Meadows was indicted last year alongside Trump and dozens of co-defendants over their efforts to reverse the 2020 election results, including on a charge for his role in setting up the infamous call in January 2021 0-in which Trump asked the Georgia secretary of state to “find” 11,780 votes.

Meadows almost immediately filed to transfer his case to federal court – he was hoping to seek dismissal of the charges on federal immunity grounds – but had the motion rejected by the US district judge Steve Jones. Meadows then appealed to the 11th circuit.

The three-judge panel at the 11th circuit, which heard Meadows’ case in December, appeared skeptical with his arguments that he was entitled to remove his case to federal court because he was acting as a federal officer when he took steps to try and reverse Trump’s defeat.

And in an unusually swift decision that came just three days after the hearing, the three-judge panel emphatically rejected Meadows’ position and ruled he was ineligible for removal because he was not currently a federal officer and because he was engaging in campaign activities post-election.

“Federal-officer removal under section 1442(a)(1) 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,” the chief judge at the 11th circuit, William Pryor, wrote.

Meadows is facing a particularly perilous situation in the Fulton county case. The Guardian has previously reported that the district attorney’s office is opposed to negotiating plea deals with Trump, Meadows and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in order to avoid trial.

It was unclear why prosecutors are opposed to negotiating with Meadows, though the fact that he only testified after being ordered by a court in the federal 2020 election interference case brought against Trump in Washington suggested he might only be a reluctant witness.