Mark Meadows files motion to duck arrest in Georgia election fraud case ahead of surrender deadline

Former White Home Chief of Workers Mark Meadows filed an emergency movement in federal court docket on Tuesday demanding that he be protected against arrest in Georgia on expenses that he conspired with former President Donald Trump to overturn the state’s 2020 election outcomes. 

Meadows, 64, faces a Friday deadline to voluntarily give up to authorities in Fulton County, Georgia — however he has requested a decide to move his case out of state court, citing immunity to native expenses given his standing as a federal official within the run-up and aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. 

“Defendant Mark R. Meadows hereby strikes for the Court docket ‘promptly’ to allow elimination and ‘so notify the State court docket,’ 28 U.S.C. § 1455(b)(5), with no listening to and earlier than Midday on Friday, August 25, 2023, with a view to shield Mr. Meadows from arrest previous to this Court docket’s upcoming listening to on elimination,” a court filing from the previous White Home official and North Carolina congressman reads. 

“Absent this Court docket’s intervention, Mr. Meadows might be denied the safety from arrest that federal regulation affords former federal officers,” attorneys for Meadows wrote to US District Court docket Choose Steven Jones.

Meadows, who was indicted earlier this month on expenses underneath the Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute and for allegedly soliciting an official to violate their oath of workplace, was notified by Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis Tuesday morning that his request to delay his arrest till Jones can rule on his switch movement has been rejected. 

“I’m not granting any extensions,” Willis wrote in an e mail to Meadows’ attorneys, the court docket submitting reveals. “I gave 2 weeks for folks to give up themselves to the court docket. Your shopper is not any totally different than another legal defendant on this jurisdiction. The 2 weeks was an incredible courtesy. At 12:30 pm on Friday I shall file warrants within the system. My staff has availability to satisfy to debate affordable consent bonds Wednesday and Thursday.”

On Aug. 15, at some point after Meadows, Trump and 17 others have been indicted in Willis’ probe, the previous White Home chief of workers petitioned the US District Court docket for the Northern District of Georgia to switch his case to federal court docket, the place he’ll transfer to have the fees dismissed. 

Meadows argues that he was performing throughout the scope of his authority as a “federal official” when he engaged within the actions cited within the indictment.

The court docket agreed to carry a listening to on Meadows’ request, however not till Aug. 28. 

Former Justice Division official Jeffrey Clark, who can be charged within the Fulton County indictment, has additionally requested the Northern District of Georgia to ban Willis from arresting him by Friday, citing the identical immunity from native expenses.