Meadows testified before grand jury in special counsel's Trump probe: report
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has testified before a grand jury in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Trump, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Two people briefed on the matter told the outlet that Meadows, who served during the last year of the Trump administration, had testified, but when he did so and if prosecutors asked him about one or both of the cases Smith is overseeing related to Trump is unclear.
Smith has been investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and broader efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as the classified and sensitive documents that were taken to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla.
The Hill has reached out to an attorney for Meadows, George Terwilliger, for comment.
“Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.” Terwilliger told the Times.
Meadows served as chief of staff as Trump was attempting to win reelection and was during the attempts from Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 results. Two people briefed on the matter told the Times that Meadows also had a role in trying to discuss the documents that were taken from the White House, and Meadows also served as one of Trump’s representatives to the National Archives.
Meadows was among several former Trump aides who were ordered in March to testify before a grand jury in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) probe of the insurrection. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court judge’s order in April following an appeal from Trump.
Meadows refused to testify before the House select committee that investigated the Capitol riot during the past session of Congress and was held in contempt, but the DOJ declined to prosecute him.
The Times reported that some Trump advisers had believed Meadows could be a major witness in the probes that Smith is conducting.
The report comes after Trump’s attorneys met with federal prosecutors on Monday to discuss the DOJ’s investigation into the documents.
Trump lashed out on social media after the meeting.
“The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong,” he wrote in one post. “Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn’t want to give them back, and still doesn’t. Nothing happens to him, with same reasonable prosecutor who correctly exonerated Mike Pence. I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!”