Trump Chief Of Staff Placed Under Investigation In North Carolina

0
1339

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was recently revealed to have registered to vote ahead of the 2020 elections at a North Carolina address that neither he nor his wife owned — and where he had apparently never spent a single night. The set-up, of course, suggests that Meadows had committed fraud. (The former chief of staff’s wife, Debbie, had rented and then briefly stayed at the residence, which appears to be how they connected with it. A neighbor, Tammy Talley, also characterized herself as a friend of Mark and Debbie.) Now, a state investigation into the matter has begun — lumping Meadows in with perpetrators of the isolated instances of fraud that pockmarked the country in the 2020 elections, which is startling considering his role in spreading false claims of systematic election fraud.

Mark and Debbie apparently both registered at the address in question, which is in a town called Scaly Mountain, and as of recently, the voter registrations remained active although the couple had since purchased property in South Carolina. (You’d think someone so committed to lies about election fraud would be more committed to ensuring that their own elections paperwork was in order.) As summarized by The New Yorker, recapping remarks from a former owner of the North Carolina place, Debbie “reserved the house for two months at some point within the past few years—[the former owner] couldn’t remember exactly when—but only spent one or two nights there.” The apparent same previous owner of the place added to a different outlet that Mark “never spent a night down there.”

Now, according to that outlet — a North Carolina NBC affiliate, the “North Carolina attorney general’s office has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows’ voter registration in North Carolina.” State attorney general’s office spokeswoman Nazneen Ahmed indicated the State Bureau of Investigation was asked to “investigate alongside the State Board of Elections,” explaining: “At the conclusion of their investigation, we’ll review the findings.” Separately, “Anjanette Grube, public information director for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, confirmed to The Washington Post Thursday that the matter is under investigation,” that publication says.

Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch had asked a particular section within the attorney general’s office to take up an investigation into the issue because of a conflict of interest on her part — Meadows is a past donor to her campaign and has previously appeared in ads on her behalf. Thus, she said in a letter to state officials that she was “requesting the Attorney General’s Office handle both the advisement of law enforcement agencies as to any criminal investigations as well as any potential prosecution of Mark Meadows.” Welch noted that she has previously asked the attorney general’s office “to handle prosecutions involving alleged misconduct of government officials.” Developments indicate that the attorney general’s office is obliging Welch’s investigation requests.