A three-judge appeals court panel did not appear convinced on Friday to allow former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his charges in the Georgia election subversion case to federal court.
Meadows is charged alongside former President Donald Trump and several others in a sweeping racketeering indictment alleging they sought to overturn President Joe Biden's victory in the Peach State. While judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit appeared to grapple with the complex nature of the request, they did not appear convinced Meadows was carrying out official duties when the alleged crimes took place, which was the argument presented by his attorney, George Terwilliger.
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“The problem here is, according to him, it seems like everything was within his official duties, and that just cannot be right,” said Judge Robin Rosenbaum, an appointee of President Barack Obama. “How do you answer that?”
Meadows was previously stonewalled in his bid to transfer his case to federal court by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, an Obama appointee who wasn't compelled by the former chief of staff's testimony that his interceding in the Georgia election was a duty under his federal office. As a result, the case was remanded back to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in September.
Terwilliger, a former deputy U.S. attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration, argued at one point that it would have changed the way he carried out his duties as a Justice Department official if he knew he could be subject to state prosecution after leaving his post.
“My decision making would have been really different if I knew the moment I stepped down I could be charged in a state court,” Terwilliger said.
The two other judges on the panel were Judge Nancy Abudu, an appointee of Biden, and Judge William Pryor Jr., an appointee of President George W. Bush.
Prosecutors say that the removal statute known as 28 U.S.C. 1442 is meant to protect federal authority but that there “is no federal authority to protect” in this case. They further say that Meadows's actions “fell outside the scope of his official duties” because there is no federal authority over Georgia’s post-election activities and because he was acting for the benefit of the Trump campaign.
The indictment said that on Nov. 20, 2020, Trump and Meadows met with leaders in the Michigan legislature to make “false statements concerning fraud” about the election. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined the meeting by phone. It further alleged that Meadows violated his oath as a public officer with his involvement in Trump's Jan. 2, 2021 phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, when the then-president asked Raffensperger to "find" the number of votes needed to overturn his election defeat in Georgia.
Randall Eliason, a white-collar crime professor at George Washington Law School, wrote in a post on X after the hearing that he expects Meadows's request to "be denied, either b/c Meadows didn't establish he was carrying out official duties or b/c the Court finds removal is not available to former officials — or both."
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Four people have already pleaded guilty in the Georgia election case after reaching plea agreements with the state. The remaining 15, including Trump, Meadows, and Giuliani, have pleaded not guilty.
Earlier this week, McAfee, the state court judge, announced that Meadows and two others could delay some of their pretrial motions from Jan. 8 to Feb. 5. Meadows is one of five co-defendants trying to remove their cases to federal court, though proceedings for the other defendants are moving on a slower track. Trump has not sought to move to federal court.