Meadows granted immunity deal in election interference case: ABC News
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows secured an immunity deal with special counsel Jack Smith in order to testify before a grand jury in the election interference case, ABC News reported.
Meadows testified before a grand jury empaneled to hear evidence in the case on at least three separate occasions, the outlet reported, doing so after being granted immunity.
The Hill has reached out to Meadows’s attorney for comment.
Meadows reportedly told the grand jury that after former President Trump’s election loss, he repeatedly told the him that his claims of widespread fraud were baseless.
That testimony would counter a claim Trump has repeated since losing the election — and that his lawyers defended as recently as Monday night.
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Meadows also told investigators that Trump was being “dishonest” with voters when he proclaimed victory on election night.
That aligns with the testimony of Trump campaign staff who told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack that they cautioned the former president against claiming he had won.
The news of Meadows’s cooperation comes after he was not included in the federal criminal indictment charging Trump with four counts for his conduct in seeking to block the transfer of power that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
He was also not listed as an unindicted co-conspirator along with six others, fueling speculation that Meadows may have been granted immunity.
He has, however, been charged in a sweeping election interference case in Georgia.
The special counsel’s office Tuesday declined to comment.
Meadows appears to have told Trump multiple times that he had lost the election.
According to ABC, in mid-December Meadows informed Trump that his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani had failed to find any evidence to back the campaign’s claims.
And after the Supreme Court denied his election challenge that month, Trump told Meadows something to the effect of, “So that’s it.”
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