his Friday, the US Department of Justice rejected the request of Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), to transfer the case in which he is accused of election interference in Georgia from a state court to a federal court embarrassed court.
Meadows appeared in this state on August 28 to defend his motion and received the answer today.
Trump, Meadows and 17 others are facing charges in Georgia for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election there, which Democrat Joe Biden won by a narrow margin of two-tenths (49.5%), the narrowest in the country whole country.
In particular, Meadows is accused of encouraging a public official to violate his oath of office and of violating the RICO law, which is known to be used against members of the Mafia and is designed to ensure that the leaders of a criminal organization and not only its members, subordinates, accountable to justice.
He is primarily accused of organizing the call in which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes on January 2, 2021, one more than Democrat Joe Biden got there.
According to the Washington Post, Meadows explained in late August that a large part of his job as chief of staff was organizing calls and managing the then-president’s agenda. He added that he attended many meetings and listened to many calls of a political nature, only to end these conversations at the right time.
By moving the case to federal court, Meadows sought to ease the dismissal of his charges by invoking immunity protections for federal officials, according to The Hill.
The 19 defendants were summoned last Wednesday for the formal reading of the charges against them and to discuss whether or not they would plead guilty. Before that date, however, all said they were not guilty and voluntarily waived their right to attend the hearing. This method.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Democrat Fani Willis, has suggested that the court begin the trial on October 23rd. The judge retained that date for only two of the defendants, attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, but the date is not yet known for the rest.
Friday’s decision not to move Meadows’ case to federal court could have implications for other defendants seeking the same.
Trump himself told the judge this Thursday that he is considering requesting the transfer of the proceedings, but he has a month to formalize the request. The 30-day period began on August 31, the day the former president pleaded not guilty.
