Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, has reportedly been granted immunity to testify in the federal investigation into the Republican billionaire’s alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
As first reported by ABC News, Mr. Meadows spoke on at least three occasions with members of the team of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is responsible for bringing the allegations to light. Mr. Meadows allegedly told investigators during these meetings that he did not believe the election was stolen.
He reportedly added that Mr Trump had been “dishonest” in claiming to be the winner of the election in the hours after the polls closed, even before the final results were known. According to information obtained by the American network from sources familiar with the matter, the former representative from North Carolina went so far as to confront Mr. Trump on several occasions. He said at the time that allegations of election fraud were baseless.
In the past, Donald Trump has described his chief of staff — one of his closest aides — as a “special friend.”
Conflicting accounts
These comments allegedly made by Mr. Meadows fall like another tile on the former Republican president and add to the list of evidence already compiled by Mr. Smith’s team. The facts reported by ABC News also show how far Mr. Trump’s supporters — including Mr. Meadows — were willing to go to support him.
In November 2021, a year after the 2020 election, Mark Meadows posted Chief leaderIt is a work that contains details of conversations and interactions with the president in the White House. He then reported a “stolen” and “rigged” election with the goal of “correcting the situation” against Mr. Trump. According to ABC News, many of the allegations in the book contradict what Mr. Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.
Among them, the rhetoric has been very different: So far, Mr. Meadows has seen no evidence invalidating incumbent President Joe Biden’s win. In addition, he allegedly told investigators that he did not believe some of the allegations in his book. Contrary to what he said there, for example, he believes the Justice Department took suspicions of election fraud seriously and could have investigated them appropriately.
Storming the Capitol building
According to Mr. Meadows, on December 11, 2020, after the Supreme Court rejected an attempt to challenge the election results in Texas, Mr. Trump reacted by saying: “So that’s the end of it. » However, he would never admit losing the election, at least in the presence of Mr. Meadows, and the former president has repeated several times since that he was the winner.
Regarding the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Mr. Meadows believes that Mr. Trump was reluctant to act to end the anger of his supporters. However, Mr. Meadows reportedly told investigators that Mr. Trump appeared increasingly anxious as the situation developed. In particular, he was visibly shaken when he learned that someone had been shot, according to ABC News sources.
While the details of the agreement between Mr. Meadows and the special prosecutor remain unknown, it is not uncommon for agreements of this type to allow someone with sensitive information to testify without fear of prosecution.
