'Playing all sides': Ex-Trump aide explains Mark Meadows' strategy — and how it blew up

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who played a vital role in pushing election conspiracies and coordinating efforts between figures involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 electoral count, had adopted a strategy of giving just enough level of cooperation to federal authorities to stay out of prison and get out from under the chaos of Trump's inner circle as the former president was indicted in the plot by special counsel Jack Smith. But then came the indictment in Georgia, where he faces charges as a co-conspirator, ruining his arrangement, argued former Trump administration staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin on CNN Tuesday evening.

Meadows is currently in the process of trying to get that case removed to federal court, and in the meantime demanding to be given an extension on the deadline to surrender or be arrested — which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears uninterested in entertaining.

"This is more than him just wanting to avoid a mugshot in Fulton County," said anchor Anderson Cooper. "Clearly he would like to avoid that."

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"That's certainly a factor," said Griffin. "None of this brings me joy, but Meadows, from what I understand, is basically — which is classic to anyone who knows him — playing all sides of things, trying to leave Trumpworld, going as far as he can cooperating unofficially with DOJ. I say that to mean he's responded to a subpoena. He's very clearly at least claiming he's not flipped there."

However, she continued, "Fulton County was always this X-factor, because Fani Willis didn't give him kind of an angle where he could basically quietly cooperate. So I'm not sure how this is going to work out."

"I would also just note ... there's a specific line in the Georgia indictment where it talks about Meadows actually offering money to speed up a recount," Griffin added. "That was going to come from the Trump campaign. I don't know how you could possibly legally say that he was doing that in his official White House Chief of Staff duty. That's very much an election and political effort underway."

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