Judge refuses Meadows’s request to move Arizona charges to federal court 

A judge on Monday denied a request by Mark Meadows, former President Trump’s White House chief of staff, to move his criminal charges in Arizona from state to federal court. 

U.S. District Judge John Tucci ruled that Meadows didn’t show good cause for missing the deadline to make his request and that he couldn’t switch courts, anyway, because his charges were unrelated to his official duties.

“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,” Tucci wrote in his 15-page decision.

Meadows is charged in Arizona alongside more than a dozen Trump allies over accusations they engaged in an unlawful scheme to raise false claims of election fraud to pressure Arizona election officials to overturn President Biden’s narrow 2020 victory in the state.  

Meadows, who faces nine counts, pleaded not guilty.

He has looked to move courts, a process known as removal, to assert immunity from the prosecution. Meadows has latched onto a provision that allows federal officials to move state charges if they are sufficiently connected to their official capacity. 

Arizona prosecutors opposed the attempt.

Tucci, an appointee of former President Obama, rejected Meadows’s arguments, saying it relied on “amorphous generalities” that would “vitiate” the removal statute. 

“Mr. Meadows has not so much removed the State’s indictment as rewritten it,” Tucci wrote. 

“Contrary to Mr. Meadows’s assertions, the State has not indicted Mr. Meadows for merely facilitating communication to and from the President or for simply staying abreast of campaign goings-on. Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme,” he continued. 

The judge also noted that Meadows missed the statutory deadline to start moving his charges within 30 days of his arraignment. Meadows filed his attempt 48 days afterward, and Tucci said he had no “good cause” to extend the normal window. 

Monday’s ruling isn’t the first time Meadows’s removal efforts have failed. 

He has mounted a similar attempt in Georgia, where he is charged alongside Trump on racketeering and other charges over his alleged efforts after the 2020 election. 

That effort is further along, and Meadows appealed to the Supreme Court after a lower court ruled that former officials, as opposed to current ones, can’t remove their criminal prosecutions. The justices have not yet decided whether to take up the case.