Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has reportedly been granted immunity to testify in the federal investigation into the Republican billionaire’s alleged attempt to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election.
According to what was first reported by the ABC News network, Mr. Meadows spoke on at least three occasions with members of the team of special prosecutor Jack Smith, responsible for shedding light on these allegations. Mr. Meadows allegedly, during these meetings, told investigators that he did not believe the election had been 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. The allegations of electoral fraud, he said then, were baseless.
In the past, Donald Trump has called his chief of staff – one of his closest aides – 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 that Mr. Smith’s team has already amassed. The facts reported by ABC News also demonstrate 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 The Chief’s Chief, a work containing details of conversations and interactions with the president at the White House. He then reported “stolen” and “rigged” elections and aimed to “rectify the situation” against Mr. Trump. According to ABC News, however, several claims in the book contradict what Mr. Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.
Among them, the speech was quite different: to date, Mr. Meadows has not seen any evidence to invalidate the victory of the current president, Joe Biden. In addition, he allegedly told investigators that he did not believe some of the claims in his book. Contrary to what he argued there, for example, he believes that the Department of Justice took the suspicions of electoral fraud seriously and would have investigated it adequately.
Storming of the Capitol
According to Mr. Meadows, on December 11, 2020, after the Supreme Court rejected the attempt to challenge the election results in Texas, Mr. Trump reacted by saying, “So that’s the end of it. » However, he would never have admitted to having lost the election, at least in the presence of Mr. Meadows, and the former president has repeatedly since reiterated that he was the winner.
In connection with the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Mr. Meadows believed that Mr. Trump was hesitant to act to end the ire of his supporters. However, Mr. Meadows reportedly told investigators that Mr. Trump seemed increasingly concerned as the situation evolved. 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 kind to allow a person with sensitive information to testify without fear of prosecution.