A three-judge panel appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents agreed Thursday that former Trump administration DOJ official Jeffrey Clark cannot remove his Georgia RICO prosecution to federal court, just as the appellate court ruled in the case of Mark Meadows . This time, one of the 11th Circuit judges noted in a concurrence that the removal statute is “not a get-out-of-state-court-free card.”
The relatively brief per curiam ruling from Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a Donald Trump appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, a Barack Obama appointee, has affirmed and declined to disturb a September 2023 decision against Clark.
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In that decision, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones wrote that Clark “failed to carry his burden” that he was “acting under the color of his office at the time of the acts alleged” and, in any event, the grand jury proceeding that led to his indictment had already ended. At the time, ex-Trump chief of staff Meadows’ removal case had not yet been decided by the 11th Circuit.
The panel on Thursday recounted the order of events…