Mark Meadows loses bid to transfer Arizona election case to federal court

A federal judge on Monday rejected an effort by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to contend that he was performing his official duties with his efforts to help Donald Trump remain in power despite losing the 2020 election.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi’s ruling is a rebuke of Meadows’ effort to derail the criminal case brought by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who charged the former Trump aide and more than a dozen others with conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. Trump is described as an unindicted co-conspirator in the state’s case.

Prosecutors charged Meadows with helping Trump implement a scheme to deliver slates of fraudulent presidential electors to Congress after the 2020 election from several states where Joe Biden won the popular vote. The effort was part of a wide-ranging plan by the former president to remain in power despite losing the election.

Meadows had asked Tuchi to transfer his case into federal court, where he anticipated arguing that he was immune from the criminal charges because they related to his official role as Trump’s chief of staff.

He argued that the charges primarily related to key functions of the chief of staff, from arranging phone calls to keeping Trump apprised of policy and political matters and acting as a gatekeeper to the Oval Office. Meadows also contended that the Supreme Court’s recent endorsing a sweeping view of presidential immunity buttressed his argument.

Tuchi said Meadows’ argument relied on a distorted characterization of the charges against him.

“Contrary to Mr. Meadows’s assertions, the State has not indicted Mr. Meadows for merely facilitating communication to and from the President or for simply staying abreast of campaign goings-on,” Tuchi wrote in a 15-page ruling . “Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme. Few, if any, of the State’s factual allegations even resemble the secretarial duties that Mr. Meadows maintains are the subject of the indictment.”

Tuchi noted that Arizona prosecutors have alleged that Meadows took an active role in detailing to political operatives how Trump’s elector scheme would work, that he worked with Republican Party leaders to facilitate legal efforts aimed at overturning the election, that he orchestrated the disbursal of campaign funds for post-election efforts in Nevada and that he told allies in Congress about his involvement with the elector effort.

“Mr. Meadows has not so much removed the State’s indictment as rewritten it,” the Obama-appointed judge wrote.

Meadows has suffered a string of legal defeats in his attempts to sideline criminal cases against him in Arizona and Georgia. A federal judge and appeals court panel in Georgia, where Meadows faces similar charges, shot down his bid to transfer that state’s case to federal court. It’s unclear if he intends further appeals.