Current:Home > StocksMark Meadows loses appeal seeking to move Georgia election case to federal court -FutureFinance
Mark Meadows loses appeal seeking to move Georgia election case to federal court
View
Date:2025-04-14 11:38:52
Washington — A federal appeals court rejected a bid by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move the state election interference charges against him in Georgia to federal court.
A three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by a district judge in September who said Meadows must fight the charges in state court because he did not demonstrate that his alleged conduct was related to his official duties in the Trump administration.
Writing for the court, Chief Judge William Pryor said in a 35-page opinion Monday that a statute allowing federal officials to move their case to federal court from state court "does not apply to former officers."
"Meadows, as a former chief of staff, is not a federal 'officer' within the meaning of the removal statute," Pryor wrote. "Even if Meadows were an 'officer,' his participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties."
Meadows was White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, including during the final months of his presidency. Meadows, Trump and 17 others were indicted in August in Fulton County on charges that they allegedly tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election to keep Trump in office. Four of the defendants have since pleaded guilty. Meadows and the remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Pryor wrote that "whatever the precise contours of Meadows' official authority, that authority did not extend to an alleged conspiracy to overturn valid election results."
"The district court concluded, and we agree, that the federal executive has limited authority to superintend the states' administration of elections — neither the Constitution, nor statutory law, nor precedent prescribe any role for the White House chief of staff," he said. "And even if some authority supported a role for the chief of staff in supervising states' administration of elections, that role does not include influencing which candidate prevails."
- In:
- Georgia
- Fulton County
- Mark Meadows
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
TwitterveryGood! (423)
Related
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- Fed’s Powell gets an earful about inflation and interest rates from small businesses
- All Oneboard electric skateboards are under recall after 4 deaths and serious injury reports
- Damar Hamlin plays in first regular-season NFL game since cardiac arrest
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- Wind power project in New Jersey would be among farthest off East Coast, company says
- A second UK police force is looking into allegations of sexual offenses committed by Russell Brand
- A grizzly bear attack leaves 2 people dead in western Canada. Park rangers kill the bear
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- Rebels in Mali say they’ve captured another military base in the north as violence intensifies
Ranking
- Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
- Man arrested in Peru to face charges over hoax bomb threats to US schools, synagogues, airports
- The military is turning to microgrids to fight global threats — and global warming
- Kentucky AG announces latest round of funding to groups battling the state’s drug abuse problems
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- Georgia political group launches ads backing Gov. Brian Kemp’s push to limit lawsuits
- Florida officers under investigation after viral traffic stop video showed bloodied Black man
- Shutdown looms, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has died, Scott Hall pleads guilty: 5 Things podcast
Recommendation
Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
Jodie Turner-Smith Files for Divorce From Joshua Jackson After 4 Years of Marriage
NY woman who fatally shoved singing coach, 87, sentenced to additional prison time
Adam Copeland, aka Edge, makes AEW debut in massive signing, addresses WWE departure
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
Cambodian court bars environmental activists from traveling to Sweden to receive ‘Alternative Nobel’
Armenian exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh ebbs as Azerbaijan moves to reaffirm control
Meet the New York judge deciding the fate of Trump's business empire