Did you forget about Mark Meadows and the STATE criminal charges he still faces in Georgia? I’ll admit I did for a while there. Let’s face it, there’s been plenty of Trump news flooding the zone, including his mass pardon of all the J6 rioters and having the DOD shut down all federal investigations and prosecutions related to the insurrectionist RIOT he fomented. However around the country there are state prosecutors who, unlike GOP elected officials and power brokers and of course those in the media who aren’t scared of Trump. They’ve continued work on STATE level cases (meaning defendants are beyond Trump’s pardon powers) and it makes sense Trump wouldn’t want any of it in the news. That brings me to the State of Georgia and the stalled prosecution of Trump and his co-defendants including and especially Mark Meadows.
Trump, and Meadows in particular were desperate. It took some sleazy, racist as hell attacks and a lot of bluster in open court but the defense, which was make no mistake ALL about protecting Trump from state charges by a great prosecutor who had the goods derailed things. Meadows set forth on his own quest, no doubt with Trump’s full backing to move his case to federal court. If successful it would pave the way for others involved in the multi-faceted and multi-state plot to steal the 2020 election. The ultimate hope of course was that Trump would win a second term and shut down all those federal prosecutions. At the very least Meadows (and Trump and others) assumed the federal venue cases would have been heard in was more favorable to Trump. If I’m not mistaken it’s where MTG lives. Not exactly a neutral jury pool!
But things are a mess with the Georgia case. Willis is fighting to be able to continue as lead prosecutor, or at least have her office handle things. If Team Trump which of course includes Meadows succeeds in having Willis removed entirely AND re-assigning the case to another jurisdiction that means it’s all over. So in the weeks and months ahead keep your eye out for news from Georgia. Trump has shut down Jack Smith, but the Georgia case is likely the one that is most dangerous to him. Because of Mark Meadows.
I’m writing about this for an odd reason. I posted an article on PZ earlier today of a Congressional office with people all on their phones. Good ole Mark Meadows happened to be in it and I started to wonder where he is and what he’s doing these days. Is he off somewhere hiding? Perhaps in that crappy rusting little travel trailer in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of his native North Carolina? Maybe given its location it was blown away with him inside when the hurricane devastated the area. As for Witness Protection I don’t think so. If you knew what Mark Meadows does about Trump, the whole plot and J6 itself would YOU trust Trump’s DOJ to protect you? Ok, the state of Georgia could offer witness protection but hell, if the case gets going that just means it will be easy for those state agents ensuring his safety can just haul him to court!
So my money is he’s hiding. His name came up a few times during the election and talk of Trump’s success (thanks to SCOTUS) of preventing a prosecution in DC. Also, like I said Meadows and others hoped like hell Trump would win and they’d be off the hook. Of course there are still those pesky state charges and prosecutors with spines and guts. There WAS a bit of news about Meadows after the election. It turns out when it comes to SCOTUS immunity the conservatives clearly meant it to apply ONLY to Trump. Everyone else was on their own and as SCOTUSblog tells us Meadows struck out in his appeal of the rulings by the federal district court judge and the awfully conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals:
The Supreme Court turned down a plea from Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff to Donald Trump during his first term in office, to transfer his Georgia election interference prosecution to federal court. The announcement came as part of a list of orders released on Tuesday morning from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their docket for the 2024-25 term.
The linked article describes Meadows’ argument that as Chief of Staff he was acting in his “official capacity” and therefore immune from prosecution. Sound familiar? Alas, Trump seems to have a special capacity to get away with things that no one else possesses. Many a politician (and even as Chief of Staff Meadows remained a politician!) has learned the hard way that only Trump gets away with being Trump and/or doing Trumpy things. Meadows sure as hell tried and lord knows how much in legal fees he racked up trying and here’s what it got him:
A federal district court rejected his plea, concluding that Meadows had not shown a connection between the conduct for which he had been indicted and his job as chief of staff.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld that decision. It reasoned that the law allowing federal officials to move their cases to federal court does not extend to former officers. But in any event, the court of appeals added, Meadows’ “participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties.”
‘Trump-Lite’ or ‘Trump without the Trumpiness’ just doesn’t play with the MAGAs. Or with the courts which except for six justices on SCOTUS and the odd fanatic federal district judge out there (Cannon and Kacsmaryk) who don’t even let Trump be Trumpy. So SCOTUS itself, despite Neil Gorsuch apparently wanting to do so put an end to this whole nonsense by Meadows. SCOTUS went Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” on Meadows’ ass – ‘No federal court for YOU!’
So where does that leave things. Trump is of course pouring resources into the defense case of everyone in Georgia fighting like hell to get Willis and her office thrown off the case. It’s a tough situation and I fear Team Trump might get their way. However it ain’t over till it’s over and I can’t help but think of one of the witnesses that testified when we saw that appalling court hearing. We all remember Nathan Wade but HE was a default choice. The person Willis originally wanted turned her down. Former Governor Roy Barnes is an icon in Georgia. In the very Atlanta courthouse (where he still practices law), in Georgia legal circles and with the people of Georgia. He is admired. Even the racist defense lawyers were fearful of damage to their own careers if they attacked him.
Barnes had and still has juice. He had nothing but good things to say about Willis, her office and her integrity. Also, his comments about why he turned down the job that eventually went to Nathan Barnes was devastating to the defense/Team Trump. When someone like Barnes so bluntly says they know they’ll be looking over their shoulder for the rest of their life, well even to white Georgia folks who convince themselves they aren’t ‘really’ racist that had IMPACT. I suspect it did on the judge too. And will on the appellate judges in Georgia deciding if Willis stays on the case or gets tossed.
So, while I can’t say I’m hopeful I can also say I don’t think this is over. If Willis is granted leave to restart things Mark Meadows will need to be put on suicide watch! At one point he cut a partial immunity deal and spilled some of what he knew so there’s no going back on that. It will be damaging to not just him but his co-defendants including TRUMP. It means evidence that Jack Smith wasn’t allowed to present in court in DC will be presented in court after all. Better still, since federal courts still don’t allow cameras during proceedings but many states do, and the fact Georgia is one of them Trump’s worst nightmare will come true.
Meadows and his co-defendants ‘ain’t built for prison’, even a federal one. A state institution like they’d serve time in in Georgia is something they will do anything they can to avoid. That includes turning on Trump. In exchange for special protective custody if they do have to spend time behind bars and Georgia’s version of Witness Protection. And best of all if things get rolling again you can bet Willis will demand Trump’s fat orange ass in court. My will there be fireworks if that happens! Given what Trump has already done so far there might just be a willingness from SCOTUS to make some revisions to the scope of their immunity ruling.
I’ve long thought that those who said Meadows was the linchpin to nailing Trump were correct. I’d have loved to have been in the room to watch him pale whiter than a ghost, and utterly deflate, maybe even collapsing on the floor when he got the news SCOTUS told him to pound sand on his request to have his case federalized. He’s got good reason to be hiding out these days. Between a Kash Patel led FBI out there looking for him, and foreign friends of Trump who want Trump to remain in power and have enormous power to wield there are plenty of folks who’d like Meadows dead.
If we are lucky, very lucky this spring Willis we be allowed to restart her cases including against Meadows. Everything Trump has managed to sweep under the rug will be back in the news because people will be able to see the trial for themselves live on TV as it takes place. A lot of Republicans will find themselves with more to answer for than they can overcome in 2026 which means Democrats back in control of Congress. And maybe, just maybe enough Republican Senators will find the courage to do what they could have and should have done twice. Convict Trump on Articles of Impeachment and remove him from Office. That will make state level prosecutions a lot easier.
In the meantime Meadows is out there somewhere. Will we get ‘Bigfoot’ or ‘Loch Ness Monster’ sightings now and then? It seems that’s going to be the case. For now I’d love to see “Where is Mark Meadows?” trending on social media!
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Surprprised no one has picked up on this well wrought article. Wondered the same myself but did not have the depth of thought to recognize that his case lurks like a subnarine or mine, just waiting to be activated. Cross fingers and pray to all the Gods you know that the minesweepers/sub hunters do not prevail so that it explodes with all the glory Denis promises.
It’s a powder keg with a slow burning fuse. Maybe the fuse will get cut and maybe not. If the latter the tragic fact is that Trump himself won’t get hauled up into state criminal court in GA, AZ or elsewhere. However his top advisors who helped put together the whole plan to overturn the election and keep Trump in power will have to speak to his involvement in the whole thing. And in Meadows case since he already spilled who knows how many beans when he was cooperating under an immunity agreement on Oval Office goings on on Jan. 6 itself.
That would be very bad news for Trump and the GOP come 2026. And I still think Brian Kemp has an eye on the WH himself. Yes, MAGAs would be pissed he didn’t somehow “protect” Trump but Kemp is ruthless and smart as he is an evil and racist piece of shit. I don’t know if it would work but I guarantee you he has a plan ready to go to placate MAGA enough to gain momentum in a “pick up the pieces” environment if Trumpty Dumpty falls off his wall and cracks into a thousand bits.
Just as I feared John Kasich for so long, we should all fear Brian Kemp getting a national profile because while he’s not as smooth and “reasonable’ appearing as Kasich in the country in which we now live he’s enough so to be dangerous as hell given his actual views.
Personally I think he WANTS the Georgia case to start back up again and for Willis to “go for the throat” with the top few players with Meadows of course being the “star” of the show. Meadows has I believe good reason to fear for his life. Trump doesn’t even need to mutter a “will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest” if the Georgia case resumes and Meadows is part of a first, small tranche of defendants to go on trial.
Thanks for bradening the picture. Let us pray….
I.hope Willis gets to put him on trial, along with the others, who.include someone my husband went to.high school with. I am just not sanguine about convictions. It only takes one redneck, and there are a lot of them.in Fulton County, many of them rich, to hang a jury.