A federal judge on Monday denied former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request to have Arizona’s “fake electors” case against him moved from Arizona state court to federal court.
Meadows, along with 17 others, was indicted in Arizona on forgery and conspiracy charges for allegedly trying to sway the state’s 2020 election results. He has pleaded not guilty.
In August, Meadows’ lawyers argued that the case should be moved to federal court because the charges “squarely relate to Mr. Meadows’ conduct as chief of staff to the president.” The argument is similar to the one Meadows has been making for months Fulton County, Georgia, caseciting a law that requires criminal charges to be dropped when someone is charged with actions they allegedly took as a federal official.
Mark Meadows, left, Stephen Binhak and Jim Eastman appear virtually during a pretrial hearing in the Maricopa County Superior Court fraud case on Aug. 28, 2024, in Phoenix.
Cheryl Evans/AP
U.S. District Judge John J. Tuchi said the state charges — nine felony counts for his role in trying to overturn former President Donald Trump’s Arizona election loss — are “unrelated” to Meadows’ official records.
“Even if the court attributes to Mr. Meadows’ theory that the chief of staff is responsible for acting as the president’s gatekeeper, that conclusion does not establish a causal link between Mr. Meadows’ official authority and the charged conduct,” Tuchi said.
“The court finds that Mr. Meadows fails to show good cause for his premature filing of his notice of removal, and that a substantive evaluation finds that he fails to show that the conduct charged in the State’s indictment relates to his prior color of the office of Chief of Staff to the President,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement in response to the ruling. “The court will therefore remand the case to state court.”
Earlier this summer, charges were dropped against Trump’s former campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis in exchange for cooperation in the case.