A federal appeals court’s decision against Mark Meadows is “to put it mildly, a total body slam,” according to former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal.
Monday’s ruling rejected a bid by Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, to move his Georgia election interference case to federal court, affirming a federal judge’s decision in September.
A transfer to federal court would have allowed Meadows to seek dismissal of the charges, and would have complicated the Georgia racketeering case against Trump and more than a dozen other defendants over efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Beat” on Monday, Katyal noted that the ruling from a three-judge panel on the of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was authored by the court’s chief judge, William Pryor, who is “extremely conservative.”
“And to basically summarize what this long opinion says, Chief Justice Pryor just basically said, look, if you’re the White House chief of staff, launching a coup is not in your job description,” Katyal said. “That’s the opinion, plain and simple.”
In his argument to move his case to federal court, Meadows claimed that the charges against him relate to his work as a federal official.
In Monday’s ruling, the judge said that Meadows does not qualify for a transfer because he is not currently a federal official, and the charges involve his actions as part of Trump’s campaign, not as White House chief of staff.
Tom Williams via Getty Images
Meadows could appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. But according to Katyal, that probably won’t do him much good.
“I don’t think there’s any chance that this case is going to be something that the Supreme Court is going to grant and rule for Mark Meadows on. This is going nowhere fast,” he said.
As for next steps in Georgia, Katyal said the development bodes well for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the prosecutor overseeing the case.
“Hopefully he will cut a deal, because at the end of the day, the truth has to come out,” he said.
However, Katyal said he suspects Willis would not agree to an arrangement that doesn’t involve at least some jail time.
“What Meadows is accused of doing is unforgivable, and can’t be something that is just you know, get a slap on the wrist just because you testify against Donald Trump,” he said.
Watch Katyal’s analysis below on MSNBC.
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