U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones denied the latest effort for Mark Meadows on Wednesday to remove the Georgia election case against him from Fulton County. The case against Meadows, former President Donald Trump, and 18 other defendants will proceed unless the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit intervenes.
Attorneys for Meadows argued last month that any actions taken by the former White House Chief of Staff for the Trump administration to contest the 2020 election results were part of his official role as a government employee. Thus, the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and other laws require the case against him to be tried in federal court and not in Fulton County.
Jones, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, rejected Meadows’ original request in August, prompting an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court has not ruled, but ABC News reports it has ordered arguments from both parties. After Meadows’ appeal was launched, his lawyers asked Jones to pause his decision until the higher court ruled.
That request was denied on Tuesday, with Jones asserting Meadows “failed to show a stay should be granted” despite the former Trump official expressing concerns that his lawyers must prepare for a trial to begin on October 23, even as his appeal may remove the case to a federal court.
In his ruling, Jones admitted the October trial date requested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) “is not guaranteed,” as it has not been confirmed by the state, and noted that “no trial date has been set for Meadows.”
Prosecutors in Fulton County have repeatedly stressed their desire to present one unified case against all 19 defendants.
In the first live-streamed hearing last week, special prosecutor Nathan Wade revealed that Fulton County plans to call 150 witnesses over a four-month trial and said that the same number of witnesses and length of time will be required for each defendant. This means that should the case against Meadows or any others be separated from the greater Georgia Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act indictment, the separate trials would require the same amount of time.
“We contend that we must prove the entire conspiracy against each and every one charged,” Wade told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on last week, adding that allowing defendants to sever their case would mean the court would “try the same case 19 times.”
In arguments submitted to the court on Tuesday, Willis argued that while “[t]he trial of 19 defendants would be feasible” in Fulton County, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “breaking this case up into multiple lengthy trials would create an enormous strain on the judicial resources” of the county.
Republican critics of Willis have questioned the significant backlog of cases in Fulton County, with Georgia State Senator Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) describing the Fulton County Jail as a “concentration camp” with extreme overcrowding and crime. So far this year, 10 inmates have died in the facility, including six deaths in just six weeks.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mark Meadows” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
