A federal judge has dismissed last-minute attempts by Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark to evade arrest in the Fulton County, Georgia election interference case if they fail to show up in time for their indictments.
Both the former White House chief of staff and the former top Justice Department official wanted to block any attempts to arrest her for violating the deadline set two weeks ago that the 19 defendants will face the state charges, according to The Hill.
Meadows and Clark each pleaded to stop their arrests and other state proceedings while they attempt to move the case to federal court.
In the Clark case, he took an unusual approach for a defendant in a criminal trial and actually required the judge to respond to his request by 5 p.m. Tuesday, provoking derision from legal experts.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis argued Tuesday against both motions, noting that Meadows and Clark “had two weeks for people to face the court.” She also said she will issue arrest warrants if they are not received by 12:30 p.m. Friday.
US District Judge Steve Jones waited late into the night Wednesday afternoon to deny Clark’s motion in a six-page judgment.
The judge also denied Meadows’ request in a separate ruling has not yet decided whether to allow the charges against Meadows and Clark to be transferred to federal court.
You can read the decision against Clark in the following tweet from Politico reporter Kyle Cheney.
Defendants charged and arrested and charged in Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case so far include attorneys John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Ray Smith; Republican election observer Scott Hall, former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer and former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham.
Former President Donald Trump is expected to appear at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Thursday. The indictment, filed Aug. 14, alleges violations of a state anti-extortion law and several other counts.
Willis’ investigation focused on state efforts to get officials to change the 2020 presidential vote count to make Trump the winner instead of Biden, part of a larger plan to overturn the election.