Is this why Donald Trump and his allies are throwing Mark Meadows to the wolves?
Although no one involved with the Watergate investigation ever spoke the exact words “Follow the money” (it was mere movie dialogue after the fact), it’s proved so useful to unraveling political coverups over the years, the fictional line has nonetheless become synonymous with how Nixon and his allies were taken down.
This brings us to today’s news, which sees Donald Trump and/or his remaining loyalists suddenly telling Rolling Stone that they expect Mark Meadows to end up criminally indicted – a clear indication that Trump world is looking to scapegoat Meadows. But why now? Meadows has (seemingly) remained loyal to Trump all along, and publicly scapegoating Meadows like this could just push him to flip on Trump.
Earlier today I focused on the fact that Trump recently got caught trying and failing to tamper with a crucial witness whose identity is a mystery, but who has not yet appeared as part of any January 6th public hearings. Did Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony about Trump and Meadows prompt Trump to call Meadows and attempt to convince him to remain loyal, or was Trump tampering with some other person? We’ll soon find out.
But regardless of whether Meadows is the mystery witness who was being tampered with by Trump, one detail in the Rolling Stone article is belatedly jumping out at me. Here’s the relevant passage:
“According to two sources familiar with the matter, the Jan. 6 committee has asked some witnesses specific questions about Meadows’ financial arrangements with other Trump advisers who sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. The line of questioning made it clear to witnesses that the committee members were searching for signs of legally dubious payments.”
Hmm. It’s not clear what payments are being referred to here. But a few months ago, CNBC reported that shortly after the January 6th Committee was first created, the notoriously stingy Donald Trump suddenly donated a million dollars to Mark Meadows’ nonprofit organization. This was obvious hush money, but at the time there was no indication that it was done in illegal fashion.
Now you have to wonder, though. The January 6th Committee has been looking into “legally dubious payments” involving Mark Meadows and Donald Trump, and now that Trump world is aware of this line of investigation, Trump is suddenly trying to privately tamper with an unnamed witness, and now that the public knows the witness reported Trump for tampering, Trump world is suddenly trying to scapegoat Meadows.
This whole thing keeps getting more convoluted and frankly weirder with each passing day. The good news is that the January 6th Committee knows who the unnamed witness is, and will soon reveal as much. And whether that witness is Mark Meadows or not, he surely knows how to read what’s been reported about him today, and he’s got to be wondering if now is the time to flip on Trump – if he hasn’t already. We still have more questions than answers, but that should start to change within days.
