Mark Meadows ‘scowled’ at Bill Barr as Trump lectured AG about election fraud: report
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows visibly demonstrated his frustration with then-Attorney General Bill Barr after the Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal under the headline, "How Mark Meadows Ended Up in the Middle of the Fight Over Jan. 6: Text messages of former Trump chief of staff take center stage in House probe of Capitol riot."
"In the run-up to the 2020 election, Mr. Meadows had also become Mr. Trump’s emissary to the Justice Department, according to former administration officials. Mr. Trump was upset with then-Attorney General Bill Barr, who had blocked efforts to disrupt civil-rights protests with active-duty military," the newspaper reported. "Mr. Trump had largely stopped talking to Mr. Barr, and instead sent Mr. Meadows for regular check-ins for information on an investigation into the origins of the FBI’s 2016 Russia probe, these officials said."
The newspaper noted Meadows was quarantined after contracting coronavirus and did not return to the White House until the middle of Nov. 2020.
"Mr. Meadows returned to the West Wing and, along with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, helped dispatch a team of legal advisers—at Mr. Trump’s request—to Georgia where Republicans had lost the presidential election and were on the verge of losing both of the state’s Senate seats in a Jan. 5 runoff election," The Journal reported. "When Mr. Trump erupted on Mr. Barr in a private meeting about the attorney general’s public pronouncement that there had been no widespread fraud, Mr. Meadows sat next to Mr. Trump and scowled, according to people familiar with the matter. His crossed arms and frequent head shakes suggested to others in the room that he was as upset as Mr. Trump."
However, Meadows called Barr and urged him to remain on the job when he thought the attorney general might resign. Barr resigned the following month.
The report on Meadows' troubles came one day after a Washington Post story titled, "Role as Trump’s gatekeeper puts Meadows in legal jeopardy — and at odds with Trump."
On Monday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) read text messages to Meadows into the official record:
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