Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, listens to an issue from a member of the media outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020.
Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge denied former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request for an emergency stay of a ruling that sent his Georgia election interference case back to state court, a court filing showed Wednesday.
Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, had asked U.S. District Judge Steve Jones to pause his ruling pending an appeal in a better court.
But Jones sided with Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, who on Tuesday urged the judge to reject Meadows’ latest move in his ongoing push to attempt to move his case to federal court.
Meadows “has not shown he’s entitled to an emergency stay,” Jones ruled in an order dated Tuesday and made public Wednesday morning on the docket in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
Jones on Friday had denied Meadows’ initial bid to maneuver the sweeping Georgia RICO case out of Fulton County and into federal court.
Meadows has also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the eleventh Circuit to grant an emergency stay, arguing that Jones “egregiously erred” when he refused to remove the case to federal court.
The appeals court has not yet ruled on Meadows’ request. Willis on Wednesday urged that court to reject Meadows’ request for a stay.
Meadows, argued Willis, is searching for a profit that’s aimed toward protecting federal authority against interference by the state. But “the evidence demonstrates that the precise opposite has taken place: a former federal official strayed outside his authority to try and affect the consequence of a state s presidential election,” she wrote.
Willis’ 41-count indictment in Fulton County Superior Court charges Trump, Meadows and 17 other co-defendants as a part of an illegal conspiracy to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Meadows is charged with one count each of violating Georgia’s racketeering law and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. Meadows, Trump and their co-defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
No less than 4 other defendants try to maneuver their cases out of Fulton County, which encompasses Atlanta and voted overwhelmingly for Biden in 2020.
Meadows’ attorneys have argued within the federal district and appellate courts that he could face “irreparable harm” because his case could go to trial and result in his conviction and incarceration before his appeal plays out.
Two other co-defendants have their trials set for late October, and Meadows’ lawyers said the state prosecutors will seek the identical schedule for him.
But in his latest ruling, Jones wrote that Meadows’ arguments offered nothing “to persuade this Court that its decision was incorrect.”
And Meadows failed to point out “anything greater than a possibility of irreparable harm in absence of a stay,” which will not be sufficient, Jones wrote.
The judge added, “No trial date has been set for Meadows, and he admits that it will not be guaranteed his trial will probably be in October.”
