M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
Timothy Heaphy, who fronted the Jan. 6th Select Committee investigation, recalled on MSNBC a critical moment that he and his team were able to learn about through multiple witnesses they interviewed involving White House Counsel for President Trump sprinting to the dining room of the Executive Mansion.
"...when Pat Cipollone comes rushing down to [Meadows'] office and says 'They're breaking into the Capitol" and Meadows looks over at him and he says 'Pat, you know he doesn't want to do anything,'" Heaphy said, during an appearance with MSNBC's Nicole Wallace on "Deadline White House".
"So to the extent Meadows is fully truthful and corroborates the president's resistance to call off those same angry insurrectionists... that as you say are they are going to prison when a lot of these lawyers and others are not -- that's really really significant," Heaphy said.
He added: "Because, because again it goes to state of mind.
"The president's passivity and refusal to speak out against the violence when it happened is really really significant."
It is Heaphy's belief that now that Meadow's has turned federal witness for Jack Smith and his team, that the goods on what Trump did -- and perhaps potentially more significant -- didn't do will come out into the sunlight.
"I think the [Jan. 6] report says that the president over the course of the day after someone is shot, becomes increasingly concerned, but when implored early on to stop it and call it off, he says 'Remain peaceful!' You know, 'Stay calm!'"
"It takes somebody getting murdered inside the Capitol to finally change the narrative," said Heaphy. "Even then, an hour-and-a half later, [President Trump] offers this passive statement about: 'We love you, but this is what happens..."
The former investigator believes now with Meadows being on the hook to testify under oath he can "shed light" on not only the goings-on in the White House dining room, but also the real-time, minute-to-minute account, which potentially includes the president almost cheering for it, even gleefully looking at the violence and refusing to call it off.
