A federal judge ruled late Friday that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows failed to meet the requirements to move his racketeering case from a Georgia state court to federal court.

Meadows and several other of the 19 co-defendeants in the Georgia case filed to move their cases to federal court, claiming their federal jobs protected them from state charges.

US District Court Judge Steve Jones disagreed, saying the charges against him — for assisting a conspiracy to alter the results of the 2020 election — had nothing to do with his job.

Meadows Order on Removal by kc wildmoon on Scribd

Particularly, Jones said that, “The Court finds that the color of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff did not include working with or working for the Trump campaign, except for simply coordinating the President’s schedule, traveling with the President to his campaign events, and redirecting communications to the campaign.”

“Thus, consistent with his testimony and the federal statutes and regulations, engaging in political activities exceeds the outer limits of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff,” Jones wrote in his 49-page ruling.

As such, the judge said, “Meadows has not met even the ‘quite low’ threshold” to show that his case should be moved to federal court.

Moving the case to federal court would have changed the jury pool and blocked cameras from televising the proceedings. Because the trial would still be under state law, however, Meadows would not have been eligible for a federal pardon.

The ruling came on the same day that the special grand jury report — which led to the indictments of 19 individuals, including Donald Trump — was released to the public. The special grand jury was tasked with investigating the alleged attempts to alter Georgia’s presidential vote but could not indict. The grand jury that did vote for the indictment was a regular grand jury.

The special grand jury’s report recommended charges against two former Georgia US senators — David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — and current US Senator Lindsay Graham from South Carolina, the Mercury News reported.

All three have denied any wrongdoing. Graham testified before the special grand jury about his phone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who said in his own testimony that the conversation with Graham made him “uncomfortable” because some of his suggestions might have led to “disenfranchising voters.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney released the full report after earlier releasing on limited portions until after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced indictments.

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[Featured image: Mark Meadows/Fulton County Sheriff’s Office]