A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the petition of Mark Meadows, chief of staff for former president Trump, to stop his state arrest pending his bid to remove his 2020 Georgia election case to federal court.
In an emergency motion Tuesday, Meadows’s attorney requested to either expedite the transferal of his case to federal court or to block Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from seeking his arrest if he does not surrender to the Fulton County Jail by the Friday deadline. Meadows has been trying to move his case from the superior court in Fulton County, Ga., to the federal court for the U.S. Northern District of Georgia.
Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Steve Jones denied Meadows’s plea, ruling that the request is inappropriate because an evidentiary hearing still needs to be conducted on whether Meadows’s case can be relocated to federal court. His case should continue at the state level until interrupted by a change of jurisdiction, Jones said.
“While Meadows’s imminent arrest may present an actual injury, there are strong countervailing reasons to not enjoin the state criminal proceedings,” Jone said. “Section 1455 reinforces this conclusion by clearly requiring state criminal proceedings continue until the federal court has assumed jurisdiction and notified the state court.”
Meadows, alongside other defendants, was charged in an indictment alleging a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Willis, who spearheaded the indictment, had already rejected a request by Meadows’s lawyer to defer his client’s arrest deadline until one day after the federal court hearing, scheduled for Monday.
“Absent this Court’s intervention, Mr. Meadows will be denied the protection from arrest that federal law affords former federal officials, and this Court’s prompt but orderly consideration of removal will be frustrated,” Meadows’s attorney John Moran wrote in a court filing.
Meadows was charged last week with one count of racketeering and one count of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. The latter offense referred to his involvement in a phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, when Trump pressured Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” and disqualify enough fraudulent votes to secure him a victory in the state.
“While the Court understands Meadows’s argument that the federal immunity defense includes an immunity against arrest, the statutory language of Section 1455(b)(3) is clear that the state court proceedings continue until the Court has assumed jurisdiction over the case — a determination that, in fact, requires assessing whether Meadows asserts a colorable federal defense,” Jones said. “The Court has made no determinations at this time about the viability of Meadows’s defense, and leaves such findings for after the evidentiary hearing.”