UPDATE (Dec. 18, 2023, 3:44 p.m. ET): A federal appeals court on Monday affirmed a lower court decision denying Mark Meadows' request to move his Georgia state case to federal court.
Mark Meadows shouldn’t bank on his Georgia state election prosecution proceeding in federal court if the skeptical questions raised by a federal appeals court on Friday are any indication.
A three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scrutinized the breadth of Meadows’ position and wondered if the law at issue allowing removal of state cases to federal court even applies to former officers like him as opposed to just current ones.
Whatever the panel decides, its opinion won’t necessarily be the last word, because if Meadows loses he could still try to appeal up through the Supreme Court. There isn’t a strict timetable dictating when the circuit court must issue its ruling but Meadows has asked for the court to do so expeditiously.
The former Donald Trump White House chief of staff is one of 15 remaining defendants on the initial 19-defendant racketeering indictment brought against Trump, Meadows and others for their alleged actions to subvert the 2020 election in the state. The defendants have pleaded not guilty but four have since pleaded guilty in no-jail deals with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office. It’s unclear who the next defendants to plead guilty or go to trial might be.
To be sure, the 11th Circuit panel had questions for both Meadows’ lawyer and a lawyer for the state on Friday, but the judges overall sounded more dubious about Meadows’ position. They were appointed by presidents of both parties: Chief Judge William Pryor, appointed by George W. Bush, and Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Nancy Abudu, appointed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, respectively.
Among the questions they raised to the state’s lawyer were concerns of a “chilling effect” that state prosecutions could have on former federal officials in unpopular jurisdictions. The implication for this case is of a Democratic district attorney prosecuting Republicans, but it’s a concern that could run both ways as a general principle.
Importantly, even if Meadows succeeds in removing his case to federal court, that doesn’t turn it into a federal case that a president could pardon or otherwise quash. It just means that the state case proceeds in federal court. The clear benefits of such a victory remain to be seen if he ultimately wins removal.
A federal district judge rejected Meadows’ removal attempt in September, prompting his 11th Circuit appeal.
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