Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is exactly the type of person who would throw former President Donald Trump under the bus, according to Meadows’ former Republican colleague.
David Jolly, who served in the U.S. House alongside Meadows from 2013 to 2017, suggested during an MSNBC interview on Wednesday that Meadows would be willing to “sing” by cooperating with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 probe of the former president.
Trump, who is already facing multiple felony charges at the federal and state levels, may soon face additional counts stemming from Smith’s investigation. Speculation about the possible cooperation of Meadows, who testified and answered questions as part of the probe, has been mounting due to his recent reluctance to speak publicly.
Jolly suggested that Meadows may have decided to cooperate with Smith to protect himself legally. Regardless of his willingness to cooperate, Jolly predicted that Meadows would be a “central figure” for prosecutors if charges related to January 6 and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome are brought against Trump.
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“[Meadows] has remained now for the last year, the biggest open question mark for me,” Jolly said. “I hate for this to sound like a personal judgment … I think he is somebody that would give up the president. I think he’s somebody that would sing. For reasons of protecting his own culpability and liability.”
“Is he willing to put himself in personal jeopardy to protect Donald Trump when Donald Trump is probably willing to kick him to the curb? I don’t know,” he continued. “When Jack Smith finally reveals everything he has, I think Mark Meadows is going to be a central figure to whatever charges get brought against Donald Trump.”
Last month, reports emerged claiming that Meadows had testified in exchange for “limited immunity.” George Terwilliger, Meadows’ attorney, insisted that his client’s purported plea deal was “complete bull****,” although he did not explicitly address whether Meadows had testified against the former president.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Terwilliger via email on Wednesday.
Others who have recently suggested that Meadows is cooperating with federal authorities include former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former close ally of Trump turned bitter critic and rival candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Christie said during an MSNBC interview on Wednesday that Meadows “looks to me like somebody who’s cooperating with the federal government,” while predicting that “we’re going to find out” that the former Trump chief of staff signed an agreement to cooperate.
Meadows was confronted on the street by an MSNBC reporter about the January 6 investigation on Wednesday. He refused to address the topic, walking away after saying, “I don’t talk about anything J6 related.”
Conservative lawyer and frequent Trump critic George Conway said during a CNN interview last week that tight lips from Meadows suggests that “something’s up” and that he may have turned on his old boss.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that the “radio silence” from Meadows was “something that we often see with people who’ve struck a cooperation deal with the government.”