Former Trump chief of staff loses bid to move Arizona election subversion case to federal court

Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, failed to convince a judge that his criminal case related to the 2020 election in Arizona should be moved to federal court, which could have made it easier to have the charges dismissed.

Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, failed to convince a judge that his criminal case related to the 2020 election in Arizona should be moved to federal court, which could have made it easier to have the charges dismissed. Meadows similarly failed in his bid to move the criminal case against him in Georgia related to the 2020 election to federal court but has asked the US Supreme Court to weigh in. Meadows and 17 other Trump associates, including the fake electors from that state and several individuals connected to his campaign, were indicted earlier this year over their efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges. US District Judge John Tuchi ruled that Meadows had mounted the effort too late and disagreed with his arguments as to why the “untimely” bid should be allowed to proceed. But Tuchi, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, also wrote in the 15-page ruling that Meadows had failed to show how the conduct at issue in his criminal case related to his official duties as Trump’s last chief of staff, an argument that Meadows has been pushing as he’s sought to avoid criminal prosecution. “The State’s charged conduct is unrelated to Mr. Meadows’s official duties,” the judge wrote Monday. “Although the Court credits Mr. Meadows’s theory that the Chief of Staff is responsible for acting as the President’s gatekeeper, that conclusion does not create a causal nexus between Mr. Meadows’s official authority and the charged conduct.”