
Donald Trump spoke on Wednesday after reports that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows made a deal for limited immunity in exchange for testimony in the federal election subversion case against the former president.
Meadows reportedly told special counsel Jack Smith's team that he had repeatedly informed Trump that Joe Biden fairly won the 2020 presidential election.
"I've spoken to Mark Meadows many, many times over the years, and he strongly believed the election was rigged," Trump said before walking into his New York fraud trial.
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"Now, of course, you know, deranged Jack Smith and the prosecutors, they go after somebody for years, and they say, look, here's the story, we'll give you nothing, we'll erect a statue to you, or you're going to go to jail for 10 years for having done nothing wrong," he continued.
Trump argued that "some people would never make that decision" to cooperate with the prosecution. "Other people would. But Mark Meadows always felt it was rigged. The whole thing was rigged. It was rigged, and it was stolen."
The former president declined to say if he thought Rudy Giuliani would also try to make a deal to avoid prosecution.