Mark Meadows reportedly testified before grand jury in special counsel's Trump probe

Mark Meadows.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump's final White House chief of staff, has testified in front of the federal grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation of Trump, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.

Smith was appointed in November to oversee the Department of Justice's probes into Trump's attempts to hold onto the presidency after losing the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. The Times said it is not clear when Meadows testified or if he was asked about one or both of the cases.

Meadows became White House chief of staff in March 2020, and was seen as a key witness who could share insight on Trump's actions and state of mind before and after the 2020 election and interactions he had with Trump allies. He also served as one of Trump's representatives to the National Archives, and has knowledge of the archive's efforts to retrieve about two dozen boxes of material Trump took in January 2021 when he left the White House, two people briefed on the matter told the Times.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

George Terwilliger, a lawyer for Meadows, told the Times that "without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so."

In May, people close to Trump told CNN that the former president's lawyers haven't been in contact with Meadows and did not know if he was cooperating with the special counsel probe or was a target of it himself. "No one really knows what he's doing," one Trump adviser said.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.