Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows lost his appeal to move his criminal election interference case out of Fulton County to a federal court.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals slapped down the bid to reconsider Wednesday, meaning that the US Supreme Court is the only option left for Meadows.
“The Petition for Rehearing En Banc is DENIED, no judge in regular active service on the court having requested that the court be polled on rehearing en banc,” the court simply wrote.
Last year, an appeals panel shot down Meadows’ push to relocate the case, prompting his appeal for reconsideration.
Meadows appears to believe that the federal courts would be more favorable turf to fend off the two felony counts pending against him from Fulton County.
If he had succeeded in transferring the case, his legal team could have attempted to make a federal immunity claim and argued that he was merely carrying out his duties as White House chief of staff.
Additionally, presidential pardons cannot extend to state convictions, so if he moved the case to a federal court, former President Donald Trump could theoretically nullify the charges if he wins in November.
Meadows is one of at least five of the 19 original defendants in the Fulton County election racketeering case who have sought to bump their charges to a federal court. Several defendants have since pleaded guilty.
Separately, the 64-year-old is believed to have cooperated with special counsel Jack Smith, who is spearheading the Justice Department’s sweeping 2020 election subversion case, according to multiple reports.
This has drawn some unease in the Trump world.
“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen (sic) 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last year.
“Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation,” he went on. “I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat whose team is prosecuting Meadows and co, has been rocked by controversy over the “personal relationship” that she developed with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she tapped in November 2021 to help with the case.
The Superior Court of Fulton County is weighing evidence on the matter amid consideration of a motion to disqualify Willis championed by some of the co-defendants in the election tampering case, including from Trump’s lawyer.
Both Willis and Wade have maintained that they began dating after he was appointed to the role, but the court has been reviewing evidence to the contrary.
Attorneys are expected to make their closing arguments in the matter Friday.