Most of Mark Meadows' Voter Fraud Tips Were 'Crazy,' Rudy Giuliani Says

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows contributed a "significant" amount of information to former President Donald Trump's legal team, according to Rudy Giuliani in his January 6 testimony.

Giuliani, who acknowledged he was in charge of that legal team, told investigators May 20 that when he first joined Trump's legal team, he was told of an election campaign hotline used to address complaints. The former New York City mayor said some complaints were five or six days old and never responded to, leading him to the conclusion "that they had given up several weeks earlier listening to the polls that were out there."

"I know campaigns. I've been through five presidential campaigns, my own mayoral campaigns, and I've probably campaigned for a hundred people," Giuliani said. "I was, again, outraged. And then I had some people that I trusted go through them [voter fraud claims].

"And, of course, most of them were just crazy, as they normally are, but you'll always find a little piece of gold in those if you have the discipline to go through them."

Some claims were "extraordinarily sensitive" and should have been followed upon, he added.

When asked what Meadows' role was regarding said complaints, Giuliani said they would not come to him directly but usually through various outlets that ultimately led to his office. They would then be relayed to Giuliani and his co-counsel, Jenna Ellis.

Investigators also asked Giuliani who would be considered "a close, trusted strategic advisor" to Trump in relation to the campaign and post-2020 election challenges.

"I would say Mark Meadows for sure," Giuliani responded. "They were close but this brought them even closer. Steve Bannon. Jared Kushner."

Meadows' role in the attempted overturning of the 2020 election results is legally among the most pivotal, as it relates to the events on January 6 and Trump's statements that were part of an attempt to subvert the election's results.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner has referred to Meadows as the "prime candidate" as a cooperating witness against his former boss, due to closed-door testimony like Giuliani's and public testimony by Meadows' former aide, Cassidy Hutchinson.

Attorney Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel to the general counsel of the Department of Defense, predicted that Meadows has already flipped on Trump.

Attorney Norman Eisen told Newsweek that as Meadows' own liability increases, so, too, does that of Trump.

"Now, Meadows has been a strong Trump loyalist, so we can't know if that will happen," Eisen said. "But the usual pattern is that the worse the evidence against an individual is, the more likely they are to attempt to cooperate. That has certainly been my experience in over three decades of practicing criminal law."

The transcript of Giuliani's testimony accompanies the release of that of conservative activist Ginni Thomas, who told investigators that she hoped former Vice President Mike Pence wouldn't "concede" the 2020 election.

In previously released testimony, former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told investigators that former First Lady Melania Trump was "very wary" of Giuliani and others close in Trump's orbit being in the West Wing.

Newsweek reached out to Giuliani's attorney for comment.