Meadows is trying to move his Arizona charges to federal court after a previous failed attempt

Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, wants to move his charges in the Arizona “fake voter” case to federal court, according to a court filing Wednesday.

This will be Meadows’ second attempt to do so, and his legal counsel will argue that his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff, and will seek to have the charges dismissed.

It’s also possible that Meadows wants to move his case to federal court so he has a safety net if he is convicted: a pardon from Trump, if he is elected. The former president will have the power to pardon Meadows in a federal case, but not a state one, if he is re-elected.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, nominated by former President Barack Obama, has scheduled a Sept. 5 hearing to consider Meadows’ request. Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia for his role in an alleged scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Mel McDonald, a former county judge in the Phoenix metropolitan area who also served as U.S. attorney for Arizona during Ronald Reagan’s first term, told the Associated Press who believes Meadows has the best chance of any defendant in the Arizona electors case of taking his case to federal court.

He believes this is because the allegations center on a federal election and Meadows’ work as a federal official. “He has some federal fingerprints,” McDonald said.

While Meadows is not alleged to have worked directly with the fake electors, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other members of the Trump campaign to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in an attempt to keep Trump in office despite his loss to Biden.

The Arizona indictment also says Meadows confided to a White House staffer in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election.

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Meadows tried to have his Georgia case moved to federal court last year, but his request was rejected by a judge and an appeals court. He has asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.

In their filing, Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client allegedly did in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people “attempting to provide ideas to President Trump or seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal initiatives of the President’s campaign.”