As Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows also served as the former president’s de facto buffer — as evidenced by the fact that it was Meadows, not Trump, who was being inundated with texts on January 6th, begging him to convince his boss to make a statement and stop the violence. But Meadows hasn’t wanted to play along with the January 6th Committee — or, anyone, really — when it comes to spilling the tea on the Trump Administration (unless he’s being paid to write about it in his “f**king stupid” book). The raid on Mar-a-Lago, however, may have brought about a change in heart for Meadows. Gee, we can’t imagine why…
On Friday night, CNN broke the news that Meadows seems to have suddenly become Mr. Cooperative with the National Archives. Within a week of the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Palm Beach home and golf club, Meadows reportedly turned over several emails and texts that previously must have been stuck in his junk folder, as they were not included in any other batches of information he has shared with authorities previously.
In fact, it was only because of the communications Meadows eventually handed over to the January 6th Committee that the National Archives realized they did not have all of the former chief of staff’s electronic communications. This latest batch was in response to a request for all materials covered under the Presidential Records Act.
“It could be a coincidence, but within a week of the August 8 search on Mar-a-Lago, much more started coming in,” a source close to the situation told CNN.
Yet another source insisted that the timing really was coincidental, with both confirming that the National Archives considered Meadows to be cooperative. “While he was at Mar-a-Lago last summer, Meadows talked with Trump about the documents that the Archives was seeking to have returned, sources said,” according to CNN. “Meadows has continued to work with the Archives in its efforts to recover documents since then, according to the sources.”
Still, considering that Meadows has straight-out stood up the January 6th Committee in the past, and been held in contempt because of it, his sudden burst of generosity does seem slightly out of character. In August, The Washington Post was the first outlet to report that Meadows had shared information with the National Archives, though one of CNN’s sources noted that Meadows has been working with the Archives for several months now.
(Via CNN)