ATLANTA — Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, took his battle to throw out the Georgia election interference case against him to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the high court to overturn a lower-court ruling that rejected claims that his alleged conduct was tied to his official federal duties.
Washington
Mark Meadows takes bid to toss Georgia election charges to Supreme Court
The move comes more than seven months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a lower-court ruling from September that found Meadows had not proved his alleged conduct charged as part of the sweeping criminal racketeering case was related to his official duties as Trump’s most senior White House aide.
Meadows’ petition to the Supreme Court, dated Friday, sharply criticizes the 11th Circuit decision, describing it as “the first court ‘in the 190-year history of the federal officer removal statute’ to hold that the statute offers no protection to former federal officers facing suit for acts taken while in office.”
The filing contends the appellate decision was “egregiously wrong, wholly unprecedented, and exceptionally dangerous” and points to the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting Trump immunity for official presidential acts in his federal election interference case as reason for the court to intervene in Meadows’ case. The Washington Post obtained the petition, which was first reported by CNN.
“That decision makes clear that federal immunity fully protects former officers, often requires difficult and fact-intensive judgment calls at the margins, and provides not just a substantive immunity but a use immunity that protects against the use of official acts to try to hold a current or former federal officer liable for unofficial acts,” the filing states. “All of those sensitive disputes plainly belong in federal court.”
Meadows was indicted along with Trump and 17 others in August on charges they illegally conspired to try to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Meadows, who has pleaded not guilty, had sought to move his case to federal court, claiming protections under a federal statute that allows federal officials to move legal cases against them from state to federal court when the charges are tied to official duties.
A three-judge appellate court heard oral arguments in December on the issue and appeared skeptical of Meadows claims that his alleged actions outlined in the Fulton County indictment were tied to his official government duties.
In a Dec. 18 opinion written by Chief Judge William Pryor, a noted conservative jurist, the panel rejected Meadows’ arguments, writing the federal removal statute “does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties.”
Meadows’ attorneys later asked the full 11th circuit appellate bench to reconsider, but the request was denied.
The appeal comes three months after Meadows and other several other Trump allies were indicted in Arizona on similar charges of seeking to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in that state. Meadows pleaded not guilty to those charges in June.
The developments come as the Georgia election case is largely on pause, as Trump, Meadows and several other co-defendants seek to overturn a ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) to continue prosecuting the case amid claims she had an improper romantic relationship with the now-former lead prosecutor on the case.
That appeal is now pending before the Georgia Court of Appeals, which has scheduled oral arguments for Dec. 5 — a month after the November election.