Mark Meadows asks appeals court to reconsider moving his Georgia election racketeering case to federal court

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows asked an appeals court Tuesday to reconsider his push to move his Georgia criminal election racketeering trial to federal court.

Meadows is among more than a dozen people charged with former President Donald Trump in a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Meadows and four other co-defendants have asked to move their state cases to federal court by arguing they were acting as federal officials when they allegedly committed their crimes.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones rejected Meadows’ request in September, and a three-judge panel of the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision, ruling that prosecuting a former official in state court doesn't interfere with a current presidential administration.

Meadows is now asking the entire 11^th Circuit, which has 12 authorized judges, to review the case. He has hired former Solicitor General Paul Clement to represent him.

“The panel’s decision is profoundly wrong – it defies text, precedent, and common sense – and profoundly consequential,” Clement wrote. “Before the cavalry of Congress is called in to fix the statute, the full court should consider whether the error lay instead in the panel’s concededly novel holding that the critical procedural protection of federal-officer removal ends long before substantive immunity expires.”

What is Meadows charged with?

Meadows is charged with racketeering and with soliciting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office during a call Jan. 2, 2021, when Trump asked him to "find" enough votes to overtake President Joe Biden's winning margin.

The indictment describes Meadows attending a White House meeting with Trump and Michigan lawmakers, sending messages to Pennsylvania lawmakers, requesting a memo regarding “disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021,” visiting a nonpublic audit of Georgia voting and arranging the Raffensperger call.

Meadows, Trump and 17 others were charged in the alleged conspiracy being prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Four defendants have pleaded guilty, but Meadows, Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.

Why are Meadows and others trying to move to federal court?

Meadows and a handful of other defendants contend their cases should be heard in federal court because they were federal officials at the time the alleged crimes occurred. Meadows testified in August that his actions scheduling and participating in meetings with Trump were part of his duties as chief of staff.

In the 11th Circuit, Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in his decision for Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Nancy Abudu that even if the law applied to Meadows, "the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows's official duties."

But Clement argued that the Supreme Court has long held that federal officers are shielded from state prosecution after leaving office.

“The Supreme Court long ago held that federal immunity defenses protect federal officers even after they leave office,” Clement wrote.

Clement argued that even in the Nixon administration, former White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman and former White House counsel John Erhlichman were prosecuted in federal court.

“No Chief of Staff has ever had to defend his West Wing actions in state court,” Clement wrote. “But if the panel decision stands, and Meadows becomes the first, he will not be last.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mark Meadows asks again to move Georgia charges to federal court