Mark Meadows, President Trump’s former chief of staff, filed an emergency motion Monday asking a federal judge to pause an order that kept his Georgia criminal election interference case in a state court, as he seeks to appeal the decision to a higher federal court.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones on Friday denied Mr. Meadows’s bid to have the case moved to the federal court system. The ruling enables the state court to enter a conviction for him if he is found guilty at trial.
Georgia prosecutors are seeking to try Mr. Meadows and 18 other defendants as early as Oct. 23.
The motion filed Monday would pause Judge Jones’ ruling so Mr. Meadows could appeal it to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
“Absent a stay, the State will continue seeking to try Meadows 42 days from now,” his legal team wrote. “If the State gets its way, Meadows could be forced to go to trial — and could be convicted and incarcerated — before the standard timeline for a federal appeal would play out.”
Defense attorneys argued that without a stay of Judge Jones’ Friday order, Mr. Meadows could be “irreparably injured” as his prosecution moves forward in state court.
Judge Jones replied to the emergency request by ordering Georgia prosecutors to file a brief in response by Tuesday at noon.
Mr. Meadows is one of 19 co-defendants, along with former President Donald Trump, to be charged in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ sprawling election interference case. Ms. Willis, a Democrat, alleges that the defendants engaged in an illegal conspiracy to try and reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Mr. Meadows is charged with one count each of violating Georgia’s racketeering law and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
The solicitation charges stem from Mr. Meadows arranging the Jan. 2, 2021 phone call in which Mr. Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes necessary to win the state.
At least four other co-defendants in the case have sought to have their charges moved out of state court and into federal jurisdiction.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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