Forgotten in all the recent fireworks generated in the Georgia RICO case against Trump has been the saga of Mark Meadows. As Trump’s Chief of Staff he was intimately involved in most, if not all aspects of the months long, multi-front plan to keep Trump in the WH as President. No matter what. Meadows sought to have his part of the trial moved to federal court. Denied! So he appealed, and again… Denied! Federal Appeals are heard by three judge panels on a given Circuit. If one side or the other doesn’t like the ruling they can request an en banc hearing – a “second chance” of having the entire set of judges on a Circuit hear the case. It seldom results in a different outcome but it’s been known to happen. No matter. The notoriously conservative (filled with mostly staunchly conservative GOP appointees) 11th Circuit gave Meadows an emphatic NO to his request for an en banc hearing!
As The Guardian reports, Meadows will now face the charges in Atlanta brought by Fulton County DA Fani Willis if he can’t get SCOTUS to hear his request/appeal. It’s a good read but I particularly like this part:
But the denial for Meadows was emphatic. “The petition for rehearing en banc is denied, no judge in regular active service on the court having requested that the court be polled en rehearing en banc,” the unsigned, one-page order said.
That’s emphatic to be sure. More bluntly it’s a whack upside Meadow’s head with a two-by-four saying in effect: You made your choices and it’s time to face the consequences in court and be judged by a jury of your peers. So STFU and stop bothering us and the federal court system! We’ve got better and more important stuff to deal with than the likes of YOU. Anyway, right after the quote I blocked out above the article went on to blandly say it’s “unclear what Meadows will do next. You see, they reached out to him/his representatives for comment and haven’t gotten a response!
Just to refresh everyone’s memory, when Meadows first went to federal court to get his case moved there a full hearing was held. Meadows even took the stand himself. So the whole range of issues got a full and fair airing in federal District Court down there in Georgia. When the judge said no, it was NOT a federal case Meadows went running to the 11th Circuit to appeal the ruling. After that hearing it took only three freaking days before they told him NO. Meadows is however truly desperate. (I’ll get to that in a minute) So much so that he went for broke and requested the en banc hearing even though he knew the strong conservative lean of that Circuit and that it would be a waste of time.
Well, they let him twist in the wind for a while. Maybe they decided they wanted to be the cat messing around with the mouse and decided to have some fun toying with him before the kill. But the kill came. The cat/11th Circuit bit the mouse’s/Meadow’s head clean off. That short denial order was the legal equivalent of the cat standing there with that mouse’s head in it’s teeth for all to see.
I should note before I wrap this up that Willis has been unwilling to talk to some of Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case about a plea arrangement. Meadows is on that “no way Jose” list. You’d think at first glance Willis would want him as a cooperating witness, but I agree with some experts who’ve said she really doesn’t need him to make her case against Trump. He did after all for a time cooperate with federal prosecutors, at least before Trump made it clear he’d better stop. Or else. However at least some damage was done. And then there’s the fact Meadows was sitting in on that “perfect” phone call to Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensburger. You know, the one where Trump pleaded for him to find just 11,780 votes.
That’s just one aspect of the conspiracy Meadows was in on. So while I’m not a lawyer given that, other evidence in the public record and who knows what stuff we’ve yet to learn about given what I’ve learned about the Georgia RICO law Meadows is toast. Willis doesn’t need his cooperation either. It’s no wonder he’s desperate to get his case moved to what he has reason to believe would be friendlier territory. A federal jurisdiction smack dab in a purely MAGA swath of Georgia.
Now his only hope is SCOTUS and given how emphatically the 11th Circuit handed Meadows’ a$$ back to him I doubt SCOTUS will take up his appeal. I suspect he’ll at least try, and the only question is how long it will take before the SCOTUS clerk issues one of those one sentence statements saying “The petitioner’s request for a Writ of Certiorari is denied.”
Suck on it Meadows. Your done. Toast. Burnt to a crisp toast. One last thought. At this stage his best hope might be to cut some kind of deal with Jack Smith in the DC case. Who knows? State and federal prosecutors work together routinely to sort out how to deal with defendants who are subject to both state and federal charges. Willis might be applying the pressure to force Meadows into full cooperation up in DC. It’s all a mystery, so stay tuned. Meadows isn’t getting his Georgia case moved to federal court. But I have a strong feeling there are twists and turns yet to come
Meadows doesn’t have a cooperation deal w/DOJ. He testified to the Grand Jury with the assurances of Jack Smith that nothing he said to that panel could be used against him. After Smith finally puts TFG behind bars, he’s coming back to sweep up all the unindicted co-conspirators. And I think the reason Jack didn’t list Meadows as such was to delude him into thinking he was clear of charges. But like Michael Cohen discovered firsthand, you have to completely bare your soul to get a no prosecution deal. Even John Dean who was the star witness in Watergate got some jail time.
After the shitshow down in GA where the white boys tried to get into Fani’s panties, when the judge rules in her favor, since they have only theories and NO EVIDENCE OF WRONGDOING, you can bet she will be in no mood to cut any deals.