Mark Meadows' bid to move Georgia charges smacked down by appeals court

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has rejected former President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in his bid to get his criminal charges in the Georgia election racketeering case removed to federal court.

Meadows, who was rejected by a lower court before bringing his motion to the 11th Circuit, argued that the case was a federal matter that should be heard in federal court, because he was acting as a federal employee.

But in his ruling, Chief Judge William Pryor — a conservative appointed by former President George W. Bush who was once considered a frontrunner for Trump to nominate to the Supreme Court — held that first of all, Meadows is no longer a government official and can't retroactively be removed on the basis that he used to be one, and that even if he still were one, the offenses of which he is accused aren't relevant to his official duties.

"Meadows offers no official rationale for traveling to Cobb County and attempting to infiltrate the nonpublic signature-match audit being performed by law enforcement officers," wrote Pryor. "Meadows also cannot point to any authority for influencing state officials with allegations of election fraud ... At bottom, whatever the chief of staff's role with respect to state election administration, that role does not include altering valid election results in favor of a particular candidate."

Had Meadows been successful in removing his case to federal court, it would not have ended his prosecution, but it could have resulted in his case being brought before a more conservative judge and the jury pool being drawn from a more conservative area.

Several other defendants in the Georgia case have sought to have their cases removed to federal court as well, including former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark and some of the fake electors, but none have been successful. Legal experts had widely considered Meadows to have the most credible argument of the group.