Mark Meadows’ bid to block arrest in Georgia election case rejected

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ emergency request to be protected from arrest in Georgia on charges of conspiring with former President Donald Trump to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. 

“While Meadows’s imminent arrest may present an actual injury, there are strong countervailing reasons to not enjoin the state criminal proceedings (e.g., abstention doctrines and principles of federalism),” District Court Judge Steven Jones wrote in his denial of Meadows request to push his voluntary surrender date in Fulton County back until after an Aug. 28 hearing in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. 

Meadows, 64, faces a Friday deadline to turn himself in for booking on charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute and soliciting an official to violate their oath of office.

On Aug. 15, one day after Meadows, Trump and 17 others were indicted related to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe into election interference in Georgia, the former White House chief of staff petitioned the Northern District of Georgia to transfer his case to federal court, where he will move to have the charges dismissed. 

Meadows has argued that he was acting within the scope of his authority as a federal official when he engaged in the actions cited in the indictment and thus is immune to state or local charges.

Willis has denied the former North Carolina congressman’s requests for his surrender deadline to be extended, and on Wednesday she blasted his legal efforts to stave off arrest as “improper” and “baseless.”

“The defendant has failed to demonstrate he has suffered irreparable harm warranting federal intervention in his case and has cited no authority authorizing this Court to prevent his lawful arrest,” the Fulton County DA’s office wrote in a Wednesday filing in the Northern District of Georgia. 

“The hardship facing the defendant is no different than any other criminal defendant charged with a crime, including his co-defendants who have either already surrendered to Fulton County Authorities or have agreed to so surrender in the time allotted by the District Attorney,” the filing, submitted in response to Meadows’ emergency motion, continues. 

Jones on Wednesday also denied a similar campaign mounted by former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who is also charged in the Fulton County indictment and also asked the Northern District of Georgia to prohibit Willis from arresting him by Friday, citing the same immunity from local charges. 

On Tuesday, GOP poll watcher Scott Hall became the first co-defendant to turn himself in, followed soon after by Trump attorney John Eastman, the alleged mastermind behind the legal strategy to subvert the 2020 election. 

On Wednesday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham, former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, former Georgia state Sen. David Shafer, Georgia lawyer Ray Smith, and former Trump campaign attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis all surrendered themselves to local authorities.