Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was charged Monday with multiple felonies stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and other battleground states.
While Meadows is just one player in the alleged conspiracy laid out by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the passages in the indictment bearing his name are noteworthy. Meadows made an appearance in front of the grand jury in Georgia but refused to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
Trump charged in Georgia: Read the full indictment
The indictment alleges that Meadows and Trump met “on or about the 20th day of November 2020,” with Michael Shirkey, leader of the Michigan state Senate, Michigan Rep. Lee Chatfield and others. During the meeting, Trump allegedly “made false statements concerning fraud” in the 2020 election. A day later, per the indictment, Meadows “sent a text message to United States Representative Scott Perry from Pennsylvania,” asking for the phone number for the speaker and leader of that state’s legislature. Both of those contacts, the indictment states, were “in furtherance of the conspiracy” to overturn the election.
On or around Nov. 25, 2020, the indictment states, Meadows attended a White House meeting with Trump, lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis (who were also charged Monday) and a group of Pennsylvania state lawmakers to discuss the possibility of holding a special session of that state’s general assembly to challenge the election results.
Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 30 of 2020, Meadows and Trump met with political adviser John McEntee to request “that McEntee prepare a memorandum outlining a strategy for disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” the indictment states.
“The strategy included having Vice President Michael R. ‘Mike’ Pence count only half of the electoral votes from certain states and then return the remaining electoral votes to state legislatures,” the indictment reads.
Read more on Yahoo News: Meet the 18 people charged with Trump in Georgia indictment, via The Hill
Meadows traveled to Cobb County, Ga., on or about Dec. 22 of 2020, according to the indictment, attempting to observe ballot signature matching. While at the Cobb County Civic Center, where the audit of signatures was being conducted by law enforcement officers, Meadows was denied entry.
On or about Dec. 27, the indictment states, Meadows pressured Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson to speed up the audit.
“Is there a way to speed up Fulton county signature verification in order to have results before Jan. 6 if the Trump campaign assist financially,” Meadows wrote, according to the indictment.
Read more on Yahoo News: Explainer — Trump charged under law used to prosecute mafia bosses, via Reuters
On Jan. 2, 2021, the indictment states, Trump and Meadows committed a felony by “unlawfully soliciting, requesting, and importuning Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger” during a phone call.
“What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than [the 11,779 vote margin of defeat] we have, because we won the state,” Trump told Raffensperger as Meadows listened.
That pressure to find votes, according to the indictment, amounted to “unlawfully influencing the certified returns for presidential electors for the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia.”
