'He’s gonna get pulverized': Mark Meadows facing major legal peril

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to now-President Joe Biden, one of the most vocal supporters of the Big Lie in Trump’s cabinet was then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — who joined Trump in falsely claiming that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and in trying to get the election results overturned. Meadows even discussed his hopes of keeping Trump in the White House with the wife of a U.S. Supreme Court justice: GOP activist and “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorist Ginni Thomas, who is married to Justice Clarence Thomas.

Journalists Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley examine Meadows’ possible legal exposure in an article published by Rolling Stone on July 13, reporting that “Trump’s inner circle increasingly views Meadows as a likely fall guy for the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.”

“Members of Trump’s legal team are actively planning certain strategies around Meadows’ downfall — including possible criminal charges,” according to Suebsaeng and Rawnsley. “Trump has himself begun the process of distancing himself from some of his one-time senior aide’s alleged actions around January 6.”

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The reporters continue, “Meadows’ already bleak legal prospects could get even worse. Rolling Stone has learned that the January 6 committee has been quietly probing his financial dealings, and any new revelations would add to an already long list of unethical and potential illegal actions he’s accused of taking on behalf of Donald Trump…. This reporting is based on Rolling Stone’s conversations with eight sources familiar with the matter, each of whom is still working in Trump’s political orbit, on his legal defense, or in Republican circles in regular contact with the ex-president. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss sensitive matters.”

An anonymous source described by Suebsaeng and Rawnsley as a “lawyer close to the former president,” told Rolling Stone, “Everyone is strategizing around the likelihood that Mark is in a lot of trouble. Everyone who knows what they’re doing, anyway.”

One of the things working against Meadows, according to Suebsaeng and Rawnsley, is the fact that he is “loathed by any number of his fellow Trumpworld veterans.”

“Some of Meadows’ ex-colleagues and staff in the Trump Administration continue to hold grudges against him, partly because they see him as responsible for putting their lives and health in danger when he oversaw a period of rapid coronavirus spread in Trump’s White House towards the end of the presidency,” the Rolling Stone reporters explain. “And the former president himself is not long on loyalty, particularly when facing legal peril of his own. Trump’s team has already explored possible legal game plans about what would happen if Meadows faced additional criminal charges stemming from the events surrounding January 6, according to three people familiar with the situation. And those discussions have at times focused on how to insulate Trump, should any significant charges against foot soldiers like Meadows actually materialize.”

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Trump demands total, unquestioning loyalty from others, but it isn’t a two-way street. And according to Rolling Stone’s sources, Trump is in no hurry to save his former White House chief of staff.

A Trump legal adviser told Rolling Stone, “Mark is gonna get pulverized….and it’s really sad. Based on talking to (Meadows in the past, it felt like) he doesn’t actually believe any of this (election-theft) stuff, or at least not most of it. He was obviously just trying to perform for Trump, and now, he’s maybe screwed himself completely.”

Some of the most damning testimony during the January 6 committee’s hearings has come from 25-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who worked in Meadows’ office.

“Legal experts say Meadows’ foreknowledge of the armed mob on the mall, his own expectation that the rally could be ‘really, really bad,’ combined with his inaction could mean potential criminal exposure for the former Trump aide,” Suebsaeng and Rawnsley observe. “Rep. Liz Cheney said, in early July, that messages sent to Hutchinson telling her that she’s ‘loyal’ and urging her to ‘do the right thing’ in her deposition with the committee could prompt a criminal referral from the committee for potential witness tampering.”

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