A judge on Friday denied Mark Meadows’ request to move his case against the Georgia election to federal court, ruling that Trump’s White House chief of staff must contest the charges in state court.

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U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta issued the ruling last week after a hearing on Meadows’ request. Jones had asked for additional information from both sides before reaching his decision.

The ruling is a big early win for Fulton County Dist. atty Fani Willis, who spent two years investigating and building the case against former President Trump, Meadows, and 17 others before facing major charges under Georgia’s racketeering law. She has said she wants to try all the suspects together.

The defendants were indicted last month by a Fulton County grand jury, charged with participating in an elaborate scheme to illegally attempt to reverse Trump’s loss in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election, after state voters Joe Biden had chosen.

All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Meadows said his actions were taken as part of his role as the Republican president’s chief of staff. He and his lawyers also argued that because he was a federal official at the time, the charges against him should be heard in federal court and eventually dismissed for lack of merit.

Prosecutors said the actions outlined in the indictment were designed to keep Trump in office after he lost to Biden, a Democrat. They said the defendants’ actions were explicitly political in nature and illegal under the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity by federal employees. Therefore, prosecutors said the case should be tried in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia.

Several other people charged in the indictment have also filed requests to have their cases taken to federal court; they are scheduled for hearings for Jones later this month.