Cohen questions why Meadows, Kushner missing from Jan. 6 indictment

by Sarah Fortinsky - 08/03/23 1:24 PM ET

Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen raised questions Wednesday about why Mark Meadows and Jared Kushner were missing from the latest indictment against former President Trump, suggesting the possibility that they could be cooperating witnesses.

This week’s federal indictment against Trump, which charges him with four crimes related to his efforts to cling to power after the 2020 election, lists six unnamed co-conspirators, many of whose identities have been unveiled by the media.

Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who is now an outspoken critic of the former president, pointed out that Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, evidently are not among the six unnamed co-conspirators.

“I think the more important thing in this indictment to look at are not who the six co-conspirators are, but rather, who is missing from this indictment,” Cohen said in an interview on CNN.

“For example, you don’t see any mention of Mark Meadows. You see nothing of Jared Kushner. Jared Kushner was the secretary of everything. How is it possible that he is not listed here? He was there. He was on Donald’s lap the entire time from the day Donald entered the White House to the day that he left,” he said.

“I believe he’s probably a cooperating witness,” Cohen added.

Related coverage from The Hill

Asked by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota whether he thinks Kushner would cooperate against his father-in-law, Cohen responded, “Oh, in a heartbeat. Do you think Jared is any different than Donald? Do you think that Donald wouldn’t throw Jared under the bus in order to save himself? The answer is an emphatic yes.”

He added he “absolutely” thinks the same is true for Meadows.

Trump is set to be arraigned on the latest charges in Washington later Thursday.

During the series of hearings conducted by the House Jan. 6 select committee investigating the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol, Meadows’s former chief of staff, Cassidy Hutchinson, detailed her boss’s activities on the day of the riot and portrayed her boss as seemingly uninterested in the risk of violence. Hutchinson testified that Meadows was scrolling through his phone and did not look up when he was notified that there were weapons in the crowd.

Chris Whipple, who authored a book on White House chiefs of staff, told The Hill after Hutchinson’s testimony that “we now know is he wasn’t just a sycophant or missing in action when he should have been telling the president hard truths, he was a co-conspirator.”

Kushner testified before the House committee that he was in the shower Jan. 6 when he got a call from then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) who asked for help and expressed fear about the growing crowd. He also was asked about Trump’s mindset before the panel and said he thinks Trump truly believed he won the election.

Tags Jan. 6 Capitol riot Jared Kushner Mark Meadows Michael Cohen Trump indictment