A new report says former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is laying the groundwork for helping Georgia prosecutors in their efforts to convict former President Donald Trump of racketeering and conspiracy charges related to Trump’s challenge of the 2020 election.
Nineteen people, including Trump, were indicted in the case, leading to speculation that many of those indicted would make deals with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“History has shown the 18 co-defendants that Donald doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said, according to Politico.
“I suspect it will be every defendant for himself,” Cohen said.
In court, Meadows all but pointed the finger at Trump in discussing a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
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Meadows has said he arranged the call. However, his attorney noted that in the call itself, Meadows was a bit player.
“There’s a lot of statements by Mr. Trump. Mr. Meadows’ speaking roles were quite limited,” said Michael Francisco, Meadow’s lawyer.
“He didn’t make a request that you change the vote totals — Mr. Meadows, himself?” Francisco said.
“Correct,” Raffensperger testified.
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Relying upon that call in the trial could be tricky.
According to a Washington Post transcript, Trump’s actual words were: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”
Politico said if Meadows turns on Trump, he will not be the only defendant to do so.
“Strategically speaking, if you are one of the lesser important players, you would definitely want to be in the same trial with Donald Trump. All of the focus is going to be on him,” attorney Scott Weinberg said.
“They don’t want the little guys, they want Trump. You’re always compared to who you’re next to,” he said.
David Shafer, the Republican Party chair in Georgia at the time of the 2020 election, has already pointed the finger at Trump
“Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors in the 2020 election acted at the direction of the incumbent president and other federal officials,” Shafer’s lawyers wrote in the court filing last month.
“Attorneys for the president and Mr. Shafer specifically instructed Mr. Shafer, verbally and in writing, that the Republican electors’ meeting and casting their ballots on December 14, 2020, was consistent with counsels’ advice and was necessary to preserve the presidential election contest,” the filing said.
Meadows said that the Trump electors were lined up to prepare for a court win that never came, according to Politico.
“What I didn’t want to happen was for the campaign to prevail in court action and not have this” lined up, he said.
“Why?” prosecutor Anna Cross asked him.
“Because I knew I’d be yelled at by the president of the United States,” he said.
One commentator said that Trump may try to cover all the actions with which he is charged with an immunity cloak.
“Eventually, Trump is going to assert broad presidential immunity, and everyone else is going to ride under his authority,” attorney William Shipley said.
In an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times, Harry Litman speculated that Meadows is seeking immunity from prosecution by having his case transferred to federal court and then by invoking the Supremacy Clause, “which identifies the U.S. Constitution and federal laws as ‘the supreme law of the land.’ The argument is that no matter how offensive Meadows’ conduct might have been to the state, the supremacy of federal law prevents charging him with a Georgia crime.”
