Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that he believes Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is a problem for the former president, but not that Meadows has turned against him. While speaking to ABC’s Jon Karl on “This Week,” Bharara explained, Meadows is “pretty damaging. [But] I don’t think he’s flipped.”
He added, “We have a situation in which he has been charged in the Georgia case and it’s unlikely that you’re charged and defendant in one case, but you flipped in a related case. So I don’t know that he’s cooperating.”
When it comes to the investigation, Trump’s own words continue to come back to haunt him, as in audio that came to light in June. That’s when CNN obtained an audio recording of Trump admitting that he can’t declassify the documents and that he likely shouldn’t even possess them.
Bharara noted, “Donald Trump himself has undermined his own defense in that audiotape, which is very damning.”
As Trump’s former chief of staff, Meadows could end up just as “problematic” for the potential 2024 candidate, according to Bharara. He also believes Meadows has spoken to more than one grand jury in relation to investigations into Trump.
That testimony is believed to have been impactful. Meadows, who is a key figure in Fani Willis’ investigation into Trump as well as two of Jack Smith’s investigations, reportedly told investigators that he was never made aware of any “broad declassification order” under the former president.
ABC’s Karl explained that “sources familiar with the matter” also told ABC, “Meadows told investigators that he had no idea that Trump had brought classified documents and other official records with him to Mar-a-Lago.” Further, “when the documents were first requested by the National Archives, he offered to help Trump go through the boxes he had taken from the White House to find and return official records.”
Watch the interview with Preet Bharara in the video above.
