Even though he’s no longer working for failed, one-term, twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is still trying to protect his former boss (and himself), but his actions could result in him being charged with witness tampering.
As we learned Tuesday during a public hearing of the January 6 House Select Committee, the panel has discovered that witnesses who have cooperated with the committee received messages from those close to Trump, and one of those was from Meadows, according to Politico:
The Jan. 6 select committee publicly pointed to two communications this week as potential evidence of Trump-world’s efforts to influence witness testimony — without revealing their origin. Both were detailed to the panel by Cassidy Hutchinson, according to a person familiar with the last of her four depositions.
Both of the two slides that the panel revealed at the end of its live hearing with Hutchinson reflected conversations she described to the committee in her final closed-door deposition, this person said. Hutchinson told the committee at the time that, on the eve of her earlier March 7 deposition, an intermediary for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows contacted her to say that her former boss valued her loyalty.
“[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow,” read a slide that the Jan. 6 committee broadcast at the end of Hutchinson’s hearing, which Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) characterized as pressure on a key witness. “He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”
In that slide, Politico reports, the redacted name was that of Meadows, and that could be a big problem for him.
Ben Williamson, a spokesperson for Meadows, denied the former chief of staff had ever done anything wrong:
“No one from Meadows’ camp, himself or otherwise, has ever attempted to intimidate or shape Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony to the committee. Any phone call or message she is describing is at best deeply misleading.”
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told the Washington Post he believes the facts show that witness tampering has indeed taken place:
“The vice chair released two different episodes of potential witness tampering, anonymously, for obvious reasons. We don’t want further intimidation of the same people. But we want this to be a warning to the people who are doing it that they can’t do it. It is a crime and this committee is taking it very seriously.”
Hopefully the Justice Department is doing the same.