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By Andrew Stanton
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A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Mark Meadows' request to avoid arrest in Fulton County after being indicted for allegedly violating Georgia's RICO laws to help overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
Meadows, who served as Donald Trump's chief of staff in 2020 and 2021, was one of 18 codefendants indicted by a Fulton County grand jury last week. The indictment followed District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into Trump's alleged interference attempts in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost during the 2020 presidential election.
Meadows on Tuesday filed a motion to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, asking the court to block his arrest in Fulton County. United States District Judge Steve C. Jones denied that request on Wednesday, according to court filings.
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"The Court determines that, the clear statutory language for removing a criminal prosecution, does not support an injunction or temporary stay prohibiting District Attorney Willis's enforcement or execution of the arrest warrant against Meadows," Jones wrote.
Willis had previously given the defendants until noon on Friday to surrender to Fulton County authorities.
Meadows previously asked Willis for a "modest extension" until Monday, when a hearing on his other request to have his case moved out the Fulton County to a federal court in Georgia takes place, but she rejected that request.
"I am not granting any extensions. I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender
themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction," Willis told Meadows' lawyers in a Tuesday email, indicating that she would file a warrant for his arrest if he does not surrender on time.
Following that rejection, Meadows turned to the court to try to avoid his surrender.
"District Attorney Fani Willis has made clear that she intends to arrest Mr.
Meadows before this Court's Monday hearing and has rejected out of hand a
reasonable request to defer one business day until after this Court's hearing," his attorneys wrote in a filing. "Absent this Court's intervention, Mr. Meadows will be denied the protection from arrest that federal law affords former federal officials, and this Court's prompt but orderly consideration of removal will be frustrated."
Meadows has been described as a key player in the efforts to thwart election results during the 2020 election.
"Mark was a ringleader of much of the events that happened around January 6th," Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence's ex-chief of staff, told CNN on Tuesday. "He was somebody who the president sought to find additional attorneys who gave advice different than the White House counsel, and it was very central to the events that happened on that day.
Update 8/23/23 7:04 p.m. ET: This article was updated with more information.
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