Where’s Mark Meadows?
Earlier this week two major news outlets reported that Mark Meadows had testified against Donald Trump to Jack Smith’s grand jury. Then a third major news outlet reported that Meadows had cut an immunity deal as part of that testimony, and that Meadows testified that Trump had instructed him to remove the boxes of classified documents from the White House. Meadows’ attorney then insisted there was no deal, but didn’t deny that Meadows had testified.
This all leads us to the text of Jack Smith’s criminal indictment against Donald Trump, which was issued on Thursday and unsealed on Friday. Mark Meadows’ name isn’t anywhere in it. And while names of cooperators are often left out, nothing in this indictment sounded like it was describing Meadows in any way. So what about Meadows’ testimony?
There are a few different possibilities here. One would be that the media reporting was simply wrong, and that Meadows’ testimony differed from what was reported. Another possibility would be that Meadows did give this testimony, but Jack Smith simply didn’t think it was important enough to include in the indictment. But that doesn’t sound right, does it?
Mark Meadows was closer to Donald Trump than anyone. Any testimony that he gave in the classified documents probe would surely be pivotal enough to at least be mentioned somewhere in this lengthy and detailed indictment. It’s enough to make you wonder if there are more classified documents cases that haven’t come down yet.
We still don’t know what came of Jack Smith’s classified documents grand jury in Washington DC after he launched a classified documents grand jury in Florida. Was the case transferred entirely, or were only parts of it transferred? Meadows reportedly boxed up documents at Trump’s instruction in the White House, which is obviously in Washington DC. It makes you wonder if Smith is still planning to bring more classified document charges against Trump in DC that are based on things like Meadows’ testimony.
What would those charges be? We really don’t know. We don’t know if Trump stole or gave away classified documents. We don’t know what else he might have done wrong in relation to these documents. All we know is that Jack Smith has obviously very thoroughly investigated every possible angle in the documents case, and that the angles he’s indicted Trump for (so far) seem to be rather narrow. The mere fact that Mark Meadows is nowhere near these current charges suggests that more classified document related charges could still be coming.
