It’s becoming increasingly more obvious who flipped on Trump in the January 6 case & why he’s so freaked out about it

Mark Meadows is back in the headlines again.

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff has kept a low profile since leaving his post in January 2021. He’s kept an even lower profile since the one-term, twice-impeached ex-president was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith last week for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Now, people have begun to speculate why.

“I’ve said all along I think Mark Meadows is already a cooperating witness,” Chris Christie told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last night. “He has all the looks of a cooperating witness, running into coffee shops away from the press.”

Asked by Cooper how “devastating” Meadows’ testimony against Trump could be, Christie, who is currently running against Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination for president, replied, “It could be the worst testimony for him outside the family members because Mark Meadows was with him constantly during that time.” 

“He was a very involved chief of staff, in my experience,” he continued. “He made sure he was in every meeting and every conversation. And we remember, there are hundreds of text messages that he turned over to the special counsel that he kept.”

Many have noted that Meadows is noticeably absent from the DOJ’s most recent indictment against Trump, despite being White House chief of staff during the final year of his presidency, including the weeks after the election when he was (allegedly) conconcting his plot to stay in power.

Per Politico:

Meadows is barely mentioned in special counsel JACK SMITH’s 45-page indictment, as WSJ’s Siobhan Hughes notes this morning.

So what gives? Could he be cooperating with prosecutors? Could he be indicted next? That’s unclear.

Meadows’ sudden low profile is a serious change in dynamic for those of us who’ve covered him since he came to Washington as a baby North Carolina lawmaker. The former Freedom Caucus founder-turned-Trump-ally was always — and we mean ALWAYS — at the center of the action, often by his own design. Now, he’s quietly advising conservatives at the Conservative Partnership Institute, where he makes almost $600,000 a year, Hughes reports.

🤔🤔🤔

If Meadows did, in fact, flip on Trump and is now a cooperating witness against him in the January 6 case, then perhaps it was he who the ex-president was speaking to in his Friday afternoon rant on Truth Social, when he wrote: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” 

Shortly after Trump made the threat, Smith flagged it in a late-night court filing, saying it could have “a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case” and requesting a protective order be issued to limit the information the ex-president is allowed to share about the case. 

At first, Trump’s legal team tried to spin his outburst as just your average political speech made by a guy who’s running for president, but that defense got derailed when he went on Truth Social the next day to attack Smith directly, calling him “deranged”, and accusing him of waiting to indict him until “right in the middle” of his primary campaign.

Then he turned his ire towards Nancy Pelosi, calling her “sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!”, before finally attacking Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the trial.

“There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge ‘assigned’ to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case,” he posted.

Since then, CNN reports that Chutkan has upped her security detail. In a statement, a spokesperson for US Marshals Service, which handles security at the DC District Court, said: “Ensuring that judges can rule independently and free from harm or intimidation is paramount to the rule of law, and a fundamental mission of the USMS. While we do not discuss our specific security measures, we continuously review the measures in place and take appropriate steps to ensure the integrity of the federal judicial process.”

The first hearing before Chutkan is scheduled for August 28, during which she is expected to set a trial date in the case. Smith is reportedly pushing for a speedy trial.