A three-judge panel that included a pair of Trump appointees ruled on Thursday that Clark 'cannot show any chance of success on the merits'
Donald Trump's co-defendant and ex-Justice Department loyalist Jeffrey Clark lost on Thursday in his bid to have his part of the Georgia 2020 election racketeering case immediately put on hold until a federal appeals court decides where he can fight the charges.
A three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which included a pair of Trump appointees, ruled that Clark "cannot show any chance of success on the merits" and so "there can be no basis for granting a stay."
Clark is appealing a lower court decision that he must stand trial in Fulton County Superior Court alongside 14 other co-defendants, including the former president. The former senior DOJ official is accused in the Fulton County indictment of helping pursue a plan via his role inside the federal government that would keep Trump in the White House for another term based on election fraud grounds that Clark falsely claimed the Justice Department had observed.
The 56-year old lawyer, seen as a possible second term Trump attorney general pick, has pleaded not guilty to the state charges and continues pushing to get his case bumped from Fulton County Superior Court into U.S. District Court.
He maintains that because the charges deal with actions he took while working for the U.S. government he can only be accused of crimes in federal courts.
So far, however, Clark's efforts haven't been successful, with Georgia's prosecutors arguing successfully in court that the DOJ official was operating outside of his official duties when he tried to push the false claims of election fraud. Even so, Clark's lawyers told the 11th Circuit in October that they must put their client's part of the Georgia case on hold until it reaches a final decision.
"It makes no sense for trial in Fulton County, Georgia to go forward while the Eleventh Circuit cogitates on whether the case should be heard in state court or federal court," Clark's attorneys wrote in their initial motion to stay the proceedings.
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Thursday's ruling came from a three-judge panel consisting of Circuit Judges Robin Rosenbaum, an appointee of President Barack Obama; and two Trump appointees: Robert Luck and Andrew Brasher.
Clark's prospects in the 11th Circuit — no oral arguments hearing has been scheduled, yet — remain murky.
On Monday, a separate three-judge panel unanimously denied former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' bid to make the same leap from Georgia into federal court. That opinion got issued on the next business day after the court heard oral arguments, with Meadows now on the clock to decide whether to appeal their decision for a rehearing before the same three-judge panel, ask all the judges in the circuit for an "en banc" review or seek a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 11th Circuit is also considering a separate bid from so-called ‘fake’ electors David Shafer, Cathy Latham and Shawn Still who are also seeking to get their portion of the Georgia case shifted into federal court. Like Meadows and Clark, they lost in federal district court. No oral arguments hearing has been scheduled, though on Friday Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu, a President Joe Biden appointee, granted the three co-defendants an extension to file their next brief by Jan. 18.
In Fulton County, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has yet to schedule a trial date for any of the remaining co-defendants in the Trump case — though he's weighing a request from District Attorney Fani Willis to begin the proceedings in August.