Mark Meadows on Monday filed an emergency motion to pause his prosecution in Fulton County, Georgia, just days after a federal judge rejected his bid to move to federal court.
The former Trump administration chief of staff was denied his bid by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones on Friday to remove his state criminal proceedings to federal court. Meadows's counsel argues the charges relate to his role as a White House official.
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Meadows has already filed a notice of appeal to the 11th Circuit, teeing up a likely precedent-setting Supreme Court fight over his request that has been hotly debated among legal scholars.
Meadows's motion on Monday noted that District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to try Meadows and the case's 18 other defendants, including former President Donald Trump, as early as Oct. 23.
"Absent a stay, the State will continue seeking to try Meadows 42 days from now," the filing said. "If the State gets its way, Meadows could be forced to go to trial — and could be convicted and incarcerated — before the standard timeline for a federal appeal would play out."
Meadows, Trump, and 17 others pleaded not guilty last month to all charges in the racketeering indictment over alleged efforts to subvert the state's 2020 election results.
Jones on Friday found that Meadows's act of arranging the Jan. 2, 2021, call where Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes needed to win the state amounted to "campaign-related political activity" and that Meadows's participation in that call was "political in nature," and thus did not fall "under color" of his official duties.
Meadows's Monday motion states he "respectfully believes" the district court erred in its decision on Friday and that he "intends to seek expedited review in the Court of Appeals later today."
Jones has ordered Willis to respond to his request by noon Tuesday.
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Separately, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is slated to decide this week whether 17 defendants including Meadows and Trump can have their cases tried separately from two defendants who have demanded a speedy trial on track for jury selection in October. Prosecutors for Willis said last week they expect the trial to last four months, not including jury selection.
Willis has said she would like to try all 19 defendants together and previously proposed an early March start for the trial, on the heels of Super Tuesday, as Trump seeks to become the Republican nominee to face off against President Joe Biden next November.