Trump officials say it's clear ex-president is looking for fall guys: report

Paranoia has been rippling through Trumpland with the former president expecting anybody in his inner circle to show undivided fealty — even if that means they go to prison instead of him, according to a Rolling Stone report.

As Donald Trump digs in to defend against the barrage of indictments and civil lawsuits he has made it abundantly clear in private that any aides or attorneys are to be loyal to the very end, sending "several possible key witnesses to consider throwing Trump under the bus before he gets the chance to do it to them."

The outlet's report, involved chatting up seven potential witnesses, ex-Trump confidantes who are tied to the Fulton County, Georgia as well as the federal criminal probes and includes legal advisers, and other sources dialed into the matter.

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Through the interviews with sources, the damning conclusion is that the loyalty Trump expects is a one-way street and that because he appears to be willing to hang them out to dry they are conducting legal strategies that maintain self-preservation.

“If I went to jail for Donald Trump, if I did that, what would that do for me and my family?” a former Trump administration official who Rolling Stone maintains has been interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office. “I don’t think he would even give us lifetime Mar-a-Lago memberships if I did that for him.”

Trump has been described as being annoyed while nudging confidantes in the past week about why his former chief of staff Mark Meadows' would-be flipping for the prosecution in Fulton County to give them information "at all" related to his activities after the 2020 election, according to two people that spoke to Rolling Stone.

The publication is informed that it's the former president's belief that Meadows should be invoking executive privilege, shielding the president's actions from public scrutiny, and remain mum.

But already the dominoes are falling.

Trump's former attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis all took plea deals when offered by Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis. They came after Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty.

Those that have cooperated with authorities are measured by Trump as "weaklings" who have committed a betrayal, according to Rolling Stone's report.

The publication also learned that Trump’s staunchest allies and legal counselors drew up informal lists of the "best possible fall guys" to face the gauntlet in the federal probe in D.C. as well as the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Among the names on the patsy list, according to the outlet, were John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Powell, and Chesebro and that the tact taken by former president would be to offer that he was acting on the “advice of counsel” defense.

One lawyer who has known Chesebro for years, apparently backed this up when Rolling Stone asked about whether Trump indeed planned to sell out his attorneys to save himself, saying, "Of course."