Trump attorneys already looking to make Meadows the fall guy for Jan. 6: 'Mark is in a lot of trouble'

Donald Trump has already started to distance himself from the allies who helped his effort to overturn the 2020 election results, and his inner circle has identified Mark Meadows as the likely fall guy.

The former president's legal team is already planning strategies around criminal charges against Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, and Trump has begun to distance himself from him and other allies involved in election challenges and the Jan. 6 insurrection, reported Rolling Stone.

“Everyone is strategizing around the likelihood that Mark is in a lot of trouble,” said one lawyer close to Trump. “Everyone who knows what they’re doing, anyway.”

The House select committee has started looking into Meadows' financial dealings for evidence of legally dubious payments with other Trump advisers seeking to overturn Joe Biden's election win, according to two sources familiar with the matter, and the former president's legal advisers seem to expect they'll find it.

IN OTHER NEWS: Lauren Boebert reacts to 'American Taliban' label: 'The Constitution has God all over it'

“Mark is gonna get pulverized…and it’s really sad,” said one of Trump’s current legal advisers. “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.”

Eight sources still in Trump's political orbit or legal defense told Rolling Stone that Meadows was widely loathed by other Trump veterans, who see him as two-faced and blame him failing to control the White House coronavirus outbreak, and the former president's attorneys have gamed out how to protect him from the possibility of criminal charges against Meadows.

“I do think criminal prosecutions are possible,” said former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb. “Possible for Trump and Meadows, certainly, and for the others, including lawyers, who engaged fraudulently in formal proceedings or investigations.”