UPDATE: Mark Meadows wins request to expedite emergency stay appeal

U.S. Judge Steven Jones had denied an emergency stay request from former White House chief of staff.
Published: Sep. 13, 2023 at 10:39 AM EDT|Updated: Sep. 13, 2023 at 4:39 PM EDT
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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Only hours after a federal judge denied his request for an emergency stay, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows scored a win when a federal court of appeals granted his motion for an expedited hearing.

The ruling came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven Jones denied Meadows’s request for an emergency stay of his indictment in the sprawling, organized-crime related indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 GOP allies.

Jones ruling. which can be read below, essentially meant Meadows’s indictment will remain in the jurisdiction of Fulton County Superior Court.

Last week, Jones rejected Meadows’ bid to move his Georgia criminal case to federal court, a significant setback for Meadows and a potentially troubling sign for the nation’s 45th president.

Jones wrote in that decision Meadows had not met even the “‘quite low’ threshold for removal” to federal court, because his activities for the Trump campaign were outside the scope of his federal role as White House chief of staff.

On Monday, Trump’s Atlanta attorneys themselves filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court seeking to dismiss charges that he led a vast, criminal conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.

The filings indicate Trump wants to adopt the legal arguments his racketeering co-defendants Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesebro and Ray Smith have already made in court filings.

Trump’s attorneys have also indicated the former president will make a similar request to move his case out of state court and into a federal one.

Last week, the full special grand jury report into the allegations from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was released. Named in the final report but not indicted by Willis were Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones; U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ; former Georgia U.S. senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler; former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn; former Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn; and local attorney Lin Wood.

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