Mark Meadows Petitions Supreme Court to Move Georgia Election Case to Federal Court

Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows at the White House in Washington on Oct. 21, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Mark Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump, is petitioning the Supreme Court to review his request to move the Georgia election racketeering case to federal court, where he would seek dismissal under a federal immunity defense.

His lawyers filed the petition to the Supreme Court on July 26 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in December that former federal officials are not covered by the federal officer removal statute. Judge William Pryor wrote for the three-judge panel in that ruling that “Meadows, as a former chief of staff, is not a federal ‘officer’ within the meaning of the removal statute” and that “even if Meadows were an ‘officer,’ his participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties.”

Mr. Meadows is one of 18 co-defendants listed alongside former President Trump charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The defense attorneys opposed the decision and said the 11th Circuit became “the first court in the 190-year history of the federal officer removal statute” to rule that former officers are excluded from the statute.

They argued that courts have “uniformly understood” that the federal removal statute covers both current and former federal officers for actions taken during their tenure, according to the court filing.

“The Eleventh Circuit’s contrary conclusion is grievously wrong and necessitates this Court’s intervention,” the petition stated.

“Denying former officers removal protection by focusing on officer status at the time the prosecutor or plaintiff decides to file suit, rather than when actions under color of federal office occurred, is unprecedented for a reason. It defies statutory text, context, and common sense.”

The petition cited the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting former President Trump immunity for certain charges related to official acts as evidence that former federal officers are entitled to immunity.

Mr. Meadows’s lawyers argued that the decision “makes clear that federal immunity fully protects former officers.”

“All of those sensitive disputes plainly belong to a federal court,” they stated.

“Georgia itself has framed the case as about ‘federal meddling in matters of state authority.’

“It is hard to imagine a case in which the need for a federal forum is more pressing than one that requires resolving novel questions about the duties and powers of one of the most important federal officers in the Nation.”

Mr. Meadows and the co-defendants took action to challenge the 2020 election results, which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleged constituted a criminal racketeering enterprise.

Some co-defendants have mounted similar arguments as Mr. Meadows in seeking to move their charges to the federal court, while four others have since taken plea bargains in exchange for their testimony against other defendants.

After the defendants were indicted last August, Mr. Meadows was quick to petition for moving his case to federal court, arguing that his actions to aid President Trump’s efforts to contest the vote tallies of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia were done in his official capacity as a federal officer.

Former President Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and decried the case as politically motivated.

Last month, he filed an appeal with the Georgia Court of Appeals, alongside eight co-defendants, arguing that Ms. Willis should be disqualified from the case. The case is currently on hold for appeal.

Catherine Yang contributed to this report.