Mark Meadows is trying to bring his case in the Arizona fraudulent electoral college case to federal court

PHOENIX (AP) — Former Donald Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows wants to bring his protégés into The case of the false electors in the state of Arizona in federal court, as he unsuccessfully tried to do last year in an election fraud case in Georgia.

In a court document released Wednesday, attorneys representing Meadows in Arizona asked a federal judge to transfer the case to a U.S. district court, arguing that Meadows' actions occurred while he was a federal official serving as Trump's chief of staff. They also said they would later seek a dismissal of the charges in federal court.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, nominated by former President Barack Obama, has scheduled a hearing for September 5 to consider Meadows' request.

Meadows is facing charges in Arizona and Georgia for allegedly plotting an illegal conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election results in Trump's favor, according to authorities. President Joe Biden won Arizona with 10,457 votes.

Although he was not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows had other members of the Trump campaign team to submit to Congress the names of false electors from Arizona and other states in order to keep Trump in office despite his defeat in November 2020.

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

Last year, Meadows tried to bring his Georgia charges to federal court, but his motion was rejected by a judgewhose verdict later confirmed by an appeal courtThe former chief of staff has now asked the US Supreme Court to review the decision.

In their complaint, Meadows' lawyers said nothing their client is accused of doing in Arizona was criminal. They said the charges were based on allegations that he received messages from people “attempting to pitch ideas to President Trump or to brief Mr. Meadows on the strategy and status of various legal efforts of the President's campaign.”

Richie Taylor, a spokesman for the office of Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who filed the charges in state court, declined to comment on Meadows' request Thursday.

Mel McDonald, a former Phoenix-area district judge who also served as U.S. attorney for Arizona during President Ronald Reagan's first term, said Meadows has a better chance than any other defendant in the Arizona case of getting the case brought to federal court because the allegations relate to a federal election and Meadows is serving as a federal official.

“There are actually some government fingerprints on it,” McDonald said.

A total of 18 Republicans were charged in the Arizona electoral fraud case at the end of April. The defendants include 11 Republicans who filed a document falsely claiming that Trump had won Arizona, another Trump adviser, the former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani and four other lawyers with ties to the former president.

Earlier this month, former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Giuliani, said signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino was also the first convicted person in the Arizona case, when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to probation.

Meadows and the other remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty on charges of forgery, fraud and conspiracy in Arizona.

Although Trump was not charged in Arizona, the indictment describes him as an unindicted co-conspirator.

A court document from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office last week shows that the grand jury that filed the case wanted to consider bringing charges against the former president However, a prosecutor advised against it.

The prosecutor cited a U.S. Department of Justice policy that prevents a person from being prosecuted twice for the same crime, saying he did not know whether authorities had all the evidence needed to charge Trump at the time.

Eleven people nominated as Republican electors for Arizona met in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign a certification certifying themselves as “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump won the state in the 2020 election.

A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Michigan prosecutors, Nevada, Georgia And Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges in connection with the electoral fraud system.