Donald Trump's ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, may have struck a major blow to the former president's defense in the federal classified documents case after reportedly telling investigators he couldn't recall Trump ever attempting to declassify sensitive materials before he left office.
Meadows is alleged to have told Special Counsel Jack Smith's office that he had no knowledge of Trump even talking about declassifying sensitive documents before he left office in January 2021, nor was he aware of any "standing order" from the former president authorizing the automatic declassification of such materials removed from the White House, ABC News reported, citing unnamed sources.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges over allegations he illegally retained classified documents after he was no longer president, then attempted to obstruct the federal investigation to retrieve them.
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in connection with the classified documents case, including frequently pushing the disputed claim that he had declassified all the papers retrieved by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago resort last August before he left office. In September 2022, the former president told Fox News he had the power as president to declassify top secret documents just "by thinking about it."
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (R) listens prior to Trump's Marine One departure from the South Lawn of the White House on July 29, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Meadows is said to have told federal prosecutors he had no knowledge of Trump arranging to talking about or declassifying sensitive materials. Alex Wong/Getty Images
The claim that Trump had declassified all the classified materials he held on to after he left office was cast into further doubt in June after an audio tape was released of the former president discussing how he was in possession of a "highly confidential" Pentagon paper about a potential attack on Iran.
During the conversation at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, in July 2021, Trump admitted that "as president, I could have declassified" the document. "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
The July 2021 meeting was between Trump, the former president's aides and two people who were writing Meadows' biography.
In a statement to Newsweek about the Meadows report, a Trump campaign official accused Smith's office of "selectively leaking incomplete information that lacks proper context because they know they can't win inside a courtroom," in an attempt to "deceive Americans through the court of public opinion."
"This witch-hunt is nothing more than a desperate attempt to interfere in the 2024 election as President Trump dominates the polls and is the only person who will take back the White House," the statement added.
Meadows' legal team has been contacted for comment via email.
Experts have now said that the claims Meadows told investigators he was not aware of any attempt to declassify classified documents potentially further damage Trump's defense in the federal case.
"Donald Trump himself undermined his own defense in that audio tape, which is very damning," former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told ABC News' This Week.
"But this is additional evidence, by someone who was very close to Donald Trump, undercuts his theory which was on its face a little bit laughable that he could telepathically or automatically declassify something.
"We'll have to see how it works out with respect to his testimony. Can you be compelled to testify when you take the Fifth Amendment? Would he get immunity? All those things are possible. We'll have to see how that unfolds. But yeah, it's pretty damning," Bharara added.
Former Department of Justice spokesperson Sarah Isgur said that Meadows' proximity to Trump also makes him a key witness in the federal case.
"When you're thinking about a jury, there's just no better witness than Mark Meadows in terms of his closeness to Donald Trump, both in terms of what he'd know crossing his desk, but also his closeness to Donald Trump in understanding what Donald Trump was thinking," Isgur told This Week.
"The only thing better, of course, is going to be the audio of Donald Trump himself in that interview."
Meadows has long been considered a key figure in the investigations into Trump's alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Meadows is one of 19 suspects, including Trump, who has been charged in Georgia under Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' sprawling election interference probe.
Meadows wasn't one of the six co-conspirators accused in Smith's January 6 indictment of conspiring with Trump to overturn the last election's results, raising suspicions that Meadows may have flipped and testified against the former president in the federal case. Trump has pleaded not guilty to four charges as part of Smith's investigation.
Bharara pushed back on the claims that Meadows could have flipped on Trump because he is charged in one election investigation, but not the other.
"We have a situation in which he has been charged in the Georgia case," Bharara told ABC News.
"And it's unlikely that you're charged and defended in one case, but you flipped in a related case. So I don't know that he's cooperating."
MissDiem on August 21st, 2023 at 11:26 UTC »
Just yesterday I had a flashback memory to when Mark Meadows tried being "an anonymous source close to the President" but incompetently did so while news cameras were filming him on the White House driveway, actually calling in the anonymous leak himself.
In that instance, as anonymous leaker he showed that the official White House story about how healthy Trump was in hospital was just false.
When he was caught red handed as the leaker, he denied it. And then he went on to speak, in his official role, to lie that what he said anonymously was untrue.
This article from three years ago retells that story.
That article gives a grisly recap of Mark Meadows' creepy career and serves as chilling foreshadow of where we are today.
It provides descriptions of Meadows as schizophrenic, sociopathic, and just like the Frank Underwood character from House of Cards.
It recounts several of the time Meadows' has stabbed friends and colleagues in the back, or the front, and has come quickly grovelling to them before going on to betray them again later.
So while it has never made much sense that one of the trump crime family key captains would be flipping on him, it certainly would seem to fit a pattern.
805to808 on August 21st, 2023 at 10:45 UTC »
With all of the co-conspirators involved Trump is screwed. More than likely one or more will fold to the prosecution, including Markie Mark, and evidence will be provided that will secure a guilty verdict.
This is the very beginning of the end of the orange clown.
SicilyMalta on August 21st, 2023 at 10:07 UTC »
They didn't care while it was going on - just rode the power and money train on its rampage through democracy. Yee haw.