Meadows hoping to move Arizona fake electors case to federal court
Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is a defendant in two separate criminal cases involving former President Donald Trump and his allies' efforts to overturn the 2020 election results — one being prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for the State of Georgia, the other by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Trump himself has only been indicted in the Georgia case, not the Mayes prosecution. But Meadows, like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has been indicted in both — and is hoping to get the Arizona case moved to federal court.
Bloomberg News' Zoe Tillman reports, in an August 15 tweet, that the judge in the Arizona case is considering Meadows' request and has "set a hearing for" September 5.
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Tillman notes, "Meadows unsuccessfully tried to do this with the GA case and has a pending petition with SCOTUS."
Unlike special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case against Trump, Willis and Mayes' cases are not being prosecuted at the federal level by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — they are strictly state cases.
This means that if Trump defeats Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, he would not be able to grant Meadows a pardon in either Georgia or Arizona.
However, he would be able to grant presidential pardons in any federal cases.
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