It’s all over for Mark Meadows
We all should have seen this one coming. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied Mark Meadows’ bid to move the RICO case against him to federal court. This ruling does not bode well for Meadows or Trump, both of whom have tried to claim that what they did in Georgia was part of their jobs as president and chief of staff. No one was buying that, and neither did the judges. Meadows was facing two liberal judges, Nancy Abudu-appointed by Biden and formerly of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Robin Rosenbaum-appointed by Obama, and Chief Judge William Pryor, who was appointed by Bush. All three judges unanimously upheld District Judge Steve Jones ruling, with Pryor writing the deciding opinion, which included: “At bottom, whatever the chief of staff’s role with respect to state election administration, that role does not include altering valid election results in favor of a particular candidate.” Meadows can obviously appeal to SCOTUS, but Pryor is reportedly a close ally of Clarence Thomas.
What were people who decided to help Donald Trump try to overturn the election thinking? Now, they’re all in trouble, and if they expect Trump to help them out, well, they can forget it. Besides, Trump must get himself out of the same mess. With Meadows’ attempt to move to federal court quashed, Trump shouldn’t even bother. After all, he was the engineer of the plan, and that same court would certainly rule that he was not acting within the scope of his presidential duties. Melissa Redmon, a law professor at UGA, said: “Meadows had the strongest argument out of all of them. I mean, he was the chief of staff of the White House.” She is, of course, referring to the appeals filed by Jeffrey Clark and three Georgia Republicans who posed as fake electors. None of them worked for the White House, so they might as well withdraw their appeals and save their money for their criminal trials. Judge Pryor made that clear in his ruling by writing that removal does not apply to former federal officers. He went further by saying that even if the law applied: “Meadows fails to prove that the conduct underlying the criminal indictment relates to his official duties.” And it does not. Meadows might want to think about taking the routes of Powell, Chesebro, Ellis, and Hall. They all got off with proverbial slaps on the wrists. Besides, Fani Willis isn’t interested in any of them, including Meadows. She’s going for the catch of the day: Donald Trump.
Trump’s lead attorney, Steven Sadow, is attempting to get the entire case against Trump thrown out on First Amendment grounds. Good luck with that. That has already failed in the D.C. case. Looking back over the entire debacle, New York Times reminded that Trump and his gang spent two months in Georgia, trying to overturn the election. They cannot claim it was part of their jobs, and honestly, they can’t even call it campaign rhetoric. The campaign was over, and so is Donald Trump’s quest to return to the White House.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years