Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has reportedly been granted immunity by Jack Smith after meeting with the special counsel and his team of investigators numerous times in connection to the 2020 presidential election subversion case, casting a grim outlook on the former president's future ability to defend himself.
According to a report from ABC News, Meadows stated that Trump was "dishonest" on the night of the election, prematurely telling the public that he had secured the presidential nomination before the final results had been tallied. "Obviously we didn't win," a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith's team.
And while Meadows' book purports that the election was "stolen," the former chief of staff reportedly conceded to Smith's prosecutors that he has never witnessed signs of fraud that would have precluded Joe Biden from claiming victory, also noting, per the report, that he concurs with a federal assessment done in 2020 that the presidential election that year was the most secure in U.S. history.
In response to the blockbuster news, the ex-president hit out at Meadows in a late-night TruthSocial post on Tuesday.
“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith," Trump wrote. "BUT, when you really think about it, after being hounded like a dog for three years, told you’ll be going to jail for the rest of your life, your money and your family will be forever gone, and we’re not at all interested in exposing those that did the RIGGING — If you say BAD THINGS about that terrible 'MONSTER,' DONALD J. TRUMP, we won’t put you in prison, you can keep your family and your wealth, and, perhaps, if you can make up some really horrible 'STUFF' a out him, we may very well erect a statue of you in the middle of our decaying and now very violent Capital, Washington, D.C."
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“Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation," Trump continued. "I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
“Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless," the former president added in a follow-up post. "He certainly didn’t say that in his book!”
Ex-Trump-aide turned Jan 6 whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson shared her thoughts about Meadows — her former boss — and his recently brokered deal with the Department of Justice during an MSNBC interview with Ari Melber.
"I don't want to get out ahead of anything the Justice Department has not commented on," Hutchinson said after the news broke. "But what I will say is this," she continued. "I have hoped for a long time that Mark would step up and do the right thing, and what I define as the right thing, which is share what he knows with the Justice Department and, in effect, with the country about what happened inside the White House on January 6."
Later in the sit-down, Melber asked Hutchinson, "When he [Meadows] looks at all these people who are pleading while we're discussing him, do you think he is worried about getting convicted and going to prison in Georgia?" referring to Trump co-defendants Jenna Ellis, Keneth Chesebro, and Sidney Powell pleading guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
"Again, I don't want to speculate about what Mark may or may not be worried about," Hutchinson replied. "I would leave that to him if he would be willing to talk to, talk to his emotions about that."
Melber also broached the notion of Hutchinson serving as a potential witness if Meadows does go on trial in Fulton County, asking if she thought it was "fair to say" that Meadows may potentially be facing a slew of cooperating witnesses who were closely associated with him during his time in the White House. "You know, I would let the system in Georgia play out," Hutchinson replied. "Day by day we're starting to see more people start to cooperate and, you know, there still is a chance — unless there has been reporting, I don't believe there has been a trial date set for Mark — so there still is time for him to come around and potentially cut a cooperation agreement."
Former Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Kaytal also spoke with MSNBC, focusing instead on the ramifications that Meadows' flipping could have for Trump. Kaytal underscored how Meadows' "limited immunity deal" is part of the federal Jan 6 prosecution, separate from the state prosecution that saw back-to-back plea deals this week.
"The jig is up for a host of other Republican leaders who have been trading on this story to stay connected to voters that they think are riled up about this."
"We may wanna take this a little bit with a grain of salt, this ABC report, because ... the lawyer for Mark Meadows is disputing it, but not, I think notably, explaining what he's disputing," Kaytal told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart. "I think, you know, it stands to reason that Mark Meadows probably told the grand jury something significant for the prosecution because it's really obvious that Donald Trump lost the election," he continued. "We think it's pretty obvious that he himself knew."
"And you don't give an immunity deal to someone as high up as Meadows on a whim, so that tells me that Mark Meadows has a bit more dirt on Donald Trump than he chose to share in his book, which it looks like, according to the ABC story, he's now contradicting what he himself wrote in his book."
"But even if he hasn't flipped yet," Kaytal continued, "he may very well flip in the future because Meadows is a defendant who knows Donald Trump well and you know if the situation were reversed and if you know Trump well, you know Trump would flip on one of them in a second if he could."
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"Is it just about Donald Trump's state of mind?" asked Capehart.
"That's at least part of it," Kaytal said, "because one of Trump's big defenses in both January 6 prosecutions is, 'hey I reasonably thought I won the election, and all of these actions were calculated to try and protect democracy.'"
"So for Meadows to say this, if the ABC report is true, obliterates Donald Trump's state of mind defense."
New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, meanwhile, told CNN that Meadows is providing Smith with new information.
“This feels a little different in terms of some of the specifics of what he is said to have said, and this really drills down on him, according to ABC, saying bluntly this wasn’t stolen, he supposedly told Trump that they weren’t proving this and that he had questions about it,” Haberman told CNN’s “The Source.” “That was the first time I had heard anything like that.”
Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig, in her own interview with MSNBC, said that Meadows' autobiography has been used by other legislators to substantiate their own thoughts and ideas about the 2020 election and that Meadows seems to have disclosed to Smith what he did in days before and after the Capitol insurrection.
"We have seen texts and exchanges that Mark Meadows had with people in the White House counsel's office and other lawyers in which he made fun of the claim that there was an election that had been stolen," Leonnig said. "There was fraud enough in states such as Georgia to call those counts into question. As I remember one of those text exchanges, he said even my son hasn't found enough dead people that voted in Georgia to raise questions about this. So, it's pretty powerful stuff."
However, she added, if Meadows acknowledges that sections of his book as false, "it reveals to most of us reporters who have been covering this for a long time that the jig is up for a host of other Republican leaders who have been trading on this story, to stay connected to voters, that they think are riled up about this."
"To stay connected to a group of people that they are misleading in order to get their votes. People who gobble up conspiracy theories, distrust the government, and can be loosely misled and led astray. But it will be really interesting to watch what happens for other Republican leaders who have insisted that the election was stolen. Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, a host of people, many of whom are closely tied to Mark Meadows and Donald Trump."
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