8th September, 2023
Donald Trump’s onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows has lost his bid to shift his Georgian election meddling case to a Federal court.
The ruling foreshadows the fate of similar bids by Trump and 18 co-defendants.
Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones is also an early win for Fulton County prosecutors.
In August, after a grand jury indictment of 39 people, the prosecutors charged Trump and 18 others with conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump, the frontrunnner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
Meadows is accused of arranging calls and meetings in which prosecutors say Trump pressured election officials to change the vote count in his favour.
This included a call where he urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to deliver him the state. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors had argued that those acts were not “necessary and proper” duties for a U.S. president and his chief of staff, but Meadows said they were part of his portfolio as Trump’s top White House aide.
The law allows a defendant to have their case heard in federal court if the charges against them stem from their official duties.