Team Trump Suspects Mark Meadows Is a ‘Rat’ in Federal Investigation – Rolling Stone

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Earlier this year, Donald Trump sent some of his lawyers and political advisers on a “little fact-finding mission,” as a person with knowledge of the matter described it to Rolling Stone. The former president wanted to know, according to that source and another person close to Trump: “What is Mark doing?”

Trump was referring to his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Justice Department investigators and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office are eager to question Meadows under oath about Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election and store government documents. And it’s an ongoing mystery for Trump and his team how much Meadows has given in the feeds, and whether or not he’s actually cooperating. A few months ago, Meadows and his lawyer cut off communications with most of Trumpland, in a move that continues to frustrate people trying to keep the current two-time president out of deeper legal danger. indicted former president.

Trump’s lawyers and advisers looking for answers came back with bad news for Trump: They couldn’t figure out what was going on, leaving them to repeat rumors and speculation.

Meadows, her attorney, and Trump’s spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment from Rolling Stone.

The Meadows team fell silent. Earlier this month, The New York Times revealed that Meadows did testify before the grand jury, but few details have been uncovered about what he discussed or which specific topics his testimony related to. . And Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, this month offered only the vaguest: “Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows before a grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows is committed to telling the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.”

That cryptic statement didn’t sit well with most of Trumpworld. In recent weeks, several lawyers and confidants have discussed their unconfirmed suspicions with Trump that Meadows was too helpful to the feds to minimize Meadows’ own possible legal exposure, the two said. other people familiar with this matter. Two sources independently told Rolling Stone that when the subject came up within the past few months, Trump at times said he didn’t know what Meadows was doing, adding that it would be a “shame” if the rumors of MAGAland is true. Editor’s pick

In the days since Terwilliger’s brief statement to media outlets, some of Trump’s longtime allies and close advisers have sardonically referred to Meadows by using the rat emoji in their private conversations, according to to a source with knowledge of the situation and a screenshot reviewed by Rolling Stone.

Still, others in Trump’s immediate orbit have recently sought to reassure him that, for now, at least, he shouldn’t read too much into the silence of Meadows, two people with direct knowledge of what’s being said. Despite all the rumors flying around, these individuals told Trump that there was no hard evidence yet that Meadows was formally cooperating, and that he could simply follow the advice of lawyers to keep a low profile, answering those asked the feds when he until the special counsel’s investigation had run its course. Unfortunately for Meadows and other witnesses, Trump has for years often seen little difference between a witness who has an official cooperation agreement with prosecutors, and someone who is legally required to answer questions and in doing so offer potentially damaging information to authorities, according to sources who have spoken to Trump about federal and other investigations over the decades. In fact, Trump was outraged by the level of detail in the notes produced by his own lawyer, Evan Corcoran, which has since been very useful for prosecutors in this case.

The current state of Meadows’ relationship with Trump and his inner orbit is a marked departure from the early part of Trump’s post-presidency. Following the wave of scandal and violence stemming from Trump’s attempt to cling to power after the 2020 election, Meadows has mostly remained in the former president’s good graces. At that stage, Meadows even said privately that Trump was likely to offer him a senior role heading into the next presidential race — perhaps even as Trump’s 2024 campaign chairman, according to a source who have direct knowledge of the matter. Related

That didn’t happen — and the once-close relationship between Trump and Meadows began to sour, in various ways, beginning in late 2021.

In the summer of 2022, it became clear to Meadows and his associates that some of Trump’s lawyers and top advisers were trying to set Meadows up as a fall, as investigations related to January 6 intensified. According to a source who knows Meadows and Trump, this had the unintended consequence of causing Meadows and his legal advisers to “take a more skeptical approach, not necessarily toward [former] president, but to some people around him.

And then there was the issue of Meadows’ memoir, which, when released in late 2021, aims to make Trump look good. Amazingly it backfired. Meadows’ The Chief’s Chief — a 330-page love letter to Trump — has so far resulted in three major instances of public relations damage or serious legal trouble for former President Trump.

The book has repeatedly angered key figures in Trumpland, including Trump himself, since its publication, three people with knowledge of the situation said.

“How many times can Mark fucking put the [former] president in a bind because of that book…[that basically] nobody reads?” a senior Trump aide said last week, the day of the former president’s second arrest of the year. (The book sold a disappointing 22,000 copies in the first few months of publication.)

The latest example of Meadows’ book causing trouble for Trump came earlier this month, as the unsealed federal Trump indictment underscored how much of the process of writing Meadows’ book gave the feds and special that adviser is fodder to argue that Trump mishandled classified material that was not his. should be owned and displayed in his post-presidency.

In a recording of Trump’s conversation with two aides helping Meadows write his memoir, the former president effectively admitted to knowingly keeping classified war plans, as CNN first reported. Referring to an unnamed US military “attack plan” that prosecutors accuse him of showing to two individuals, Trump can be heard saying “As president I can declassify it” but that “Now I can’t do it anymore, you know, but it’s still a secret.”

The comments, prominently featured in the special counsel’s indictment, represent some of the most damning evidence revealed in the documents’ case.

However, the source who knows both Meadows and Trump said that any acrimony over the matter from Trump and others is “unfair,” because the feds obtained audio that Trump deliberately produced while helping to write said Meadows.

However, in recent years, Meadows’ memoir also sparked outrage when it revealed Trump had engaged in a cover-up of his COVID-19 infection, potentially putting many people at risk — including his then-opponent. 2020 is Joe Biden.

The book almost calls into question Trump’s claim of executive privilege in trying to stonewall the January 6 House committee.

It’s not meant to work this way. “He thought Trump would like it,” a knowledgeable source told The Daily Beast in 2021, about Meadows’ hopes for the memoir when it was still in the works.

But the Chief of Staff became angry with Trump before he was even released and Meadows ended up in immediate, temporary exile from his former employer. An early excerpt run by The Guardian showed that Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus a week before the White House officially acknowledged that he had contracted it. The revelation showed that Trump and the White House covered up potential early scrutiny moments before the former president’s debate with Joe Biden, putting staff, the public and his opponent at risk.

Behind the scenes, Trump called Meadows “fucking stupid” in late 2021 for revealing details in his book and Meadows was left to try to distance himself from his own book, calling the reporting on this “fake news” on the MAGA cable network.

The Chief’s Chief may also have hurt Trump’s ability to stonewall the January 6 Committee, in addition to revealing the Trump White House’s stonewalling about COVID.

Like several witnesses called before the committee, Meadows argued that executive privilege — the doctrine that presidents are entitled to confidential advice in making decisions — prevented him from sharing information about his discussions with Trump in the period after the 2020 election. But Meadows’ own book, which shared page after page of information about his conversations with Trump, briefly jeopardized the claim. Trending

When the former chief of staff sued the committee to block a subpoena, the panel’s lawyers said “Mr. Meadows has published a book that addresses some of these issues and has spoken about them publicly on several occasions,” saying those actions represent a waiver of privilege.

A judge ultimately dismissed the case and Meadows later agreed to provide documents and text messages to the committee while withholding others on grounds of executive privilege.

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