Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows bid to move Arizona election case to federal court
A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court.In a decision Monday, U.S.District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president.Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor.
He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year.While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat.Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia.In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.The decision sends Meadows’ case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court.In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S.
Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.Arizona prosecutors said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House.Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court.Meadows has since asked the U.S.
Supreme Court to review the ruling.The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election.Prosecutors say Meadows also had arr...