A former U.S. attorney on Thursday suggested that Mark Meadows’ “radio silence” amid Donald Trump’s ongoing legal troubles indicates he’s likely cooperating with investigators.
“He's been awfully quiet," Joyce Vance observed of Donald Trump’s former chief of staff during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut with Joy Reid.”
Vance was responding to guest host Jason Johnson’s comment that “the fact that one of the main conspirators, somebody who was intimately involved in the process at least legally trying to overthrow the 2020 election, that he hasn't been on the talk circuit, that we haven't heard that much about. We know he's testified, but he's been kind of quiet.”
Jones had just played video of conservative activist and attorney George Conway discussing Meadows’ plight.
“I just have the feeling something is going on there,” Conway said.
“I mean, he's someone who ought to be every bit as exposed as Donald Trump, yet he's been so quiet, it just seems like there's something up with him.”
Vance took Conway’s comments a step further.
“He's been awfully quiet, and I think George is an astute observer here. Look, Mark Meadows is someone who in some ways makes his living by promoting himself and his work, his book on television. It's surprising to have seen him go to radio silence,” Vance said.
“That's something that we often see with people who have struck a cooperation deal with the government.”
But Vance cautioned that “That's not the only conclusion that we could reach here, he could simply be trying to keep himself out of it with a low profile, knowing he does have considerable exposure. But the reality is that Mark Meadows was in the mix, he appeared to be the gate keeper and the coordinator for much of the planning that went on in advance of January 6.”
“He would be a possible target or at least a subject of the government's investigation and if he has in fact agreed to cooperate with the government, he, too, would offer very high value. He's probably the most important cooperator that the government would be able to land because of his access, and not only his conversations with the former president, but his constant text messaging with all sorts of people, including a lot of the lawyers who have been identified as part of the fake slates of electors planning and the efforts to use the Justice Department to perpetuate the big lie and the notion that there was fraud in the election when there wasn't, so it's a very interesting absence from the public square with Mark Meadows.”
