Trump Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows Forced To Testify In GA Probe

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Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff in Trump’s White House at the time of the Capitol riot and was supportive of and involved in the then-president’s ambition to stay in power despite losing that year’s presidential race, has been ordered to testify for a Georgia criminal investigation into pro-Trump election meddling.

The order came from the state Supreme Court in South Carolina, where Meadows resides. He’d already been ordered by a lower-level court in the state to provide testimony, but he predictably appealed, and after evidently hearing arguments against his appeal from Georgia officials, the court unanimously decided to affirm the lower court’s decision. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the Georgia probe, has routinely sought approval from judges local to where out-of-state witnesses live in pursuing their testimony, and she has been largely — although not entirely — successful. A Texas appeals court contested whether the nature of the special purpose grand jury working on Willis’s investigation met the legal requirements for compelling out-of-state witnesses’ testimony, with stated concerns focusing at least in part on that it can’t itself issue indictments. In Fulton County, Judge Robert McBurney — who oversees the jury’s work — has upheld its criminal nature.

“As described at the outset of this order, its purpose is unquestionably and exclusively to conduct a criminal investigation: its convening was sought by the elected official who investigates, lodges, and prosecutes criminal charges in this Circuit; its convening order specifies its purpose as the investigation of possible criminal activities; and its final output is a report recommending whether criminal charges should be brought,” he said in an intrastate dispute over the unfolding probe. He was responding to arguments that Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp was broadly protected from the kind of scrutiny Willis was inflicting with a subpoena for testimony. The judge replied that the protections only covered civil proceedings — not criminal matters. The South Carolina court that has now once again pushed Meadows to answer questions didn’t provide much in terms of reasoning, but it said: “We have reviewed the arguments raised by Appellant and find them to be manifestly without merit.” Appellant refers to Mark Meadows.

Among other involvement, he helped with setting up the infamous post-election phone call between Donald and Georgia’s top elections official, and he also spoke on the call. He additionally rather abruptly showed up to the site of a post-election audit of signatures submitted with mail-in ballots in what was potentially an example of attempted intimidation. He could also potentially provide insight about plots to seize election machines — an idea that could’ve directly affected Georgia, where 2020’s results were highly contested.