A federal appeals court on Monday rejected a bid from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his Georgia election case from state to federal court.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Meadows, along with Trump and 17 others, in August on charges of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) Act.
Meadows pleaded not guilty in September.
The appeals court ruling Monday determined that Meadows, a former federal official, was ineligible to move his case to federal court. He had argued that the charges stemmed from actions he made while in his now-former official capacity.
The ruling follows a lower court judge’s initial rejection of Meadows’s bid in September. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in that ruling however, made a different argument, asserting that “Meadows’s alleged association with post-election activities was not related to his role as White House Chief of Staff or his executive branch authority.”
Trump opted against a similar effort and chose to defend the case in state court.