Appeals court denies Meadows effort to move Georgia case to federal court

A federal appeals court on Monday rejected a bid from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his Georgia election case from state to federal court.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Meadows, along with Trump and 17 others, in August on charges of violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) Act. Meadows pleaded not guilty in September.

The appeals court ruling determined that Meadows, a former federal official, was ineligible to move his case to federal court, The Hill reported. He had argued that the charges stemmed from actions he made while in his now-former official capacity.

The ruling follows a lower court judge's initial rejection of Meadows's bid in September. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in that ruling however, made a different argument, asserting that "Meadows’s alleged association with post-election activities was not related to his role as White House Chief of Staff or his executive branch authority."

Had Meadows succeeded in moving the case to federal court, the former Trump officially could have conceivably benefited from the geographically larger area from which the court would select potential jurors. Rather than the Democrat-dominated Fulton County, the court would have drawn from a large swath of northern Georgia, which includes more Republicans.

Trump, for his part, opted against a similar effort and chose to defend the case in state court.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.