Another one of Donald Trump’s prominent associates could soon face accountability for potentially serious misconduct, according to a new report.
The reporting from an affiliate of NBC in North Carolina outlines that prosecutors on the team of state Attorney General Josh Stein, who is a Democrat, have now been tasked with deciding whether to charge longtime Trump associate Mark Meadows for voting in the state during the 2020 elections under a registration at an address where he reportedly never actually lived. Meadows was the chief of staff in the White House as the Trump presidency ended, a role he also held on January 6 during the violence that swept D.C. that day.
The State Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina has completed an examination of the situation and passed the matter back to the attorney general’s team. Meadows apparently voted in 2020’s general election with an absentee ballot that was mailed to the Washington, D.C., area. It is legal for residents of a state to obtain absentee ballots from that state even if they’re temporarily elsewhere, and it’s also not against the law to be registered to vote in multiple states at the same time, as Meadows also was — but there are strict requirements for establishing residency when registering to vote and then casting a ballot.
In general, you can’t just not live or even stay at the address you’re putting on your registration application! According to WRAL, which was the NBC affiliate in the Raleigh area reporting on recent developments, North Carolina state law mandates that addresses included on voter registrations be where those voters “physically live.” According to available info, the North Carolina investigative agency that was looking into Meadows provided conclusions to Stein’s team early last month. “Prosecutors with the AG’s Office will determine whether criminal charges are appropriate, not the SBI,” the agency said in a statement. “Because the case is now pending a decision by the AG’s Office, no additional information is available.” Stein’s team confirmed receiving updates from state investigators, but they also didn’t provide many details. “Our office has received the NCSBI file,” a spokeswoman told the media. “Because this is an ongoing matter, we are unable to comment further.”
Stein won re-election in 2020 by a margin of about 0.2 percent and is now roughly two years through his second term. Meadows actually isn’t the only ally to the former president facing questions about his residency when voting. Recently defeated Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker was also recently reported to have been still claiming a tax exemption for a primary residence on a Texas address — even though he registered to vote (and then voted!) in Georgia. Walker claimed the tax exemption for this year’s filings. Where is he actually living?
