Mark Meadows' voter fraud problem could come back to haunt Trump: former prosecutor

Appearing on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance suggested that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows' legal peril with regard to committing voter fraud in North Carolina could lead to him being forced to turn on Donald Trump.

In early March, the New Yorker reported that Meadows used a vacation home in North Carolina as his voting address even though it appears he had never visited the residence. That, in turn, has led to an investigation over voter fraud, and has already resulted in the former lawmaker being removed from the North Carolina voter rolls earlier this week.

Speaking with host Phang, Vance said Meadows -- who already could be facing a criminal indictment over the Jan 6th insurrection -- could see the various investigations into his conduct rolled up into one as part of a plea deal that could involve his flipping on the former president.

"There are a couple of options and then there's a wild card," Vance began. "One option is that they've decided not to prosecute. There's old OLC memo folks argued might prohibit prosecution in this area. I think what you're suggesting is the more likely course, DOJ is trying to sort out his status; he originally cooperated with the January 6th committee, turning over an entire tranche of documents. That's the way we have learned the most interesting information about what was going on inside of the White House."

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"It's possible that DOJ is trying to decide whether to give Meadows the opportunity to decide whether he wants to be a witness or whether he wants to be a defendant, and that's a negotiation that can take a little bit of time to work out when you're on the prosecutorial end," she continued. "The wildcard is this North Carolina voting fraud case, where Meadows registers to vote at a residence that he has never occupied while he has a house in another state, votes from North Carolina, it is a clear instance of voter fraud."

"He needs to be prosecuted for it," she stated before continuing, "And the reason I say it's a wildcard is it opens up the possibility that some negotiation could be done there. If North Carolina prosecutors are willing to cooperate with DOJ prosecutors, it wouldn't be uncommon to see whether a global deal can be worked out to obtain Meadows' testimony in exchange for favorable treatment at sentencing."

Watch below:

MSNBC 04 16 2022 07 39 32youtu.be