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Donald Trump's ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows may have "gutted" the former president if reports he was granted immunity to testify in the federal election interference case are accurate, according to an attorney.
Neal Katyal, lawyer and former acting U.S. solicitor general, reacted to an ABC News report alleging Meadows secured an immunity deal before giving evidence under Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation, where Trump has pleaded not guilty to four charges.
The report states Meadows repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 election that there was no evidence of any widespread voter fraud which cost him the race against Joe Biden. It said Meadows told federal prosecutors that he believed Trump was being "dishonest" in the early hours of November 4, 2020, when the former president claimed in a press conference "frankly, we did win this election," when a significant number of votes across the country had not been counted yet.
The reports of Meadows speaking to Smith's team at least three times this year—including once before a federal grand jury—which have not been verified by Newsweek, could be a significant update in the federal investigation into Trump's alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Meadows has long been considered a key figure in the plan to keep Trump in power after he lost the election and one of the former president's closest allies in the run-up to the January 6 Capitol attack.
While sharing an extract of the ABC News report, Katyal posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Meadows went before federal Grand Jury under an immunity arrangement, and appears to have gutted Trump in the process."
In a statement to CBS News, Meadows' lawyer George Terwilliger said the reports of an immunity deal for Trump's former chief of staff are "largely inaccurate." Terwilliger has been contacted for further comment via email.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said "I don't think" that Meadows would have testified against him for immunity under Smith's investigation.
"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' [about] him, we may very well erect a statue of you in the middle of our decaying and now very violent Capital, Washington, D.C," Trump wrote.
"Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards."
The ABC News report cited sources as saying Meadows admitted to federal prosecutors that he did not believe statements he made about the 2020 election being "rigged" and "stolen" in his 2021 biography The Chief's Chief. The report said he told officials that he is yet to see any evidence of voter fraud which would have cost Trump the last election.
Meadows is also alleged to have told federal prosecutors that in December 2020—after the Supreme Court threw out the last grasp legal challenge that would have invalidated the election results in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, which Biden won—Trump told his chief of staff something along the lines of "then that's the end," or, "So that's it."
Despite this, Trump is alleged to have continued pushing to overturn the 2020 election results based on false election fraud claims, which culminated in his supporters storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
It was previously suggested that Meadows may have flipped on Trump in the federal investigation.
Despite being charged in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' election interference probe, Meadows wasn't one of the six alleged co-conspirators mentioned in the federal 2020 election indictment against Trump, raising suspicions that Meadows may have testified against the former president in Smith's probe.
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About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more