A federal appeals court has ruled that Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows cannot move charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to federal court.
Meadows was indicted in August along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others on charges that they illegally conspired to keep the Republican incumbent in power despite him losing the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
The ruling is a win for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case and is seeking to try the remaining defendants in a single trial in a Georgia state court.
Circuit Chief Judge William Pryor, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote in Monday’s 35-page ruling that the law “does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties.”
“Shielding officers performing current duties effects the statute’s purpose of protecting the operations of federal government,” he wrote.
She said this “nightmare scenario keeps me up at night.” But she said her role as a judge doesn’t allow her to rewrite laws, only to interpret them, which is why she joined the majority opinion in this case.
Moving Meadows’ charges to federal court would have meant drawing from a jury pool that includes a broader area than just overwhelmingly Democratic Fulton County.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Meadows was indicted in August along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others on charges that they illegally conspired to keep the Republican incumbent in power despite him losing the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
The ruling is a win for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case and is seeking to try the remaining defendants in a single trial in a Georgia state court.
Circuit Chief Judge William Pryor, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote in Monday’s 35-page ruling that the law “does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties.”
“Shielding officers performing current duties effects the statute’s purpose of protecting the operations of federal government,” he wrote.
She said this “nightmare scenario keeps me up at night.” But she said her role as a judge doesn’t allow her to rewrite laws, only to interpret them, which is why she joined the majority opinion in this case.
Moving Meadows’ charges to federal court would have meant drawing from a jury pool that includes a broader area than just overwhelmingly Democratic Fulton County.
The original article contains 877 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!