WSJ：Mark Meadows, Trump’s Last Chief of Staff, Subpoenaed by Grand Jury

[StillWandering]

By C. Ryan BarberFollow
and Sadie GurmanFollow
Updated Feb. 15, 2023 9:47 pm ET



WASHINGTON—Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr. Meadows received the subpoena in late January, the person said, as special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation escalated his probe into steps Mr. Trump and his allies took to keep him in office. As Mr. Trump’s final White House chief of staff, Mr. Meadows would be among the closest advisers of the former president to be summoned before the grand jury.

The demand for his testimony predated a separate subpoena issued to former Vice President Mike Pence as part of the investigation. Two top aides to Mr. Pence—his former chief of staff Marc Short and counsel Greg Jacob—are among the former Trump administration officials who have already appeared before the grand jury.

The subpoena for Mr. Meadows could set the stage for further court battles between prosecutors and Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have cited executive privilege in attempts to block or delay the testimony of top aides in investigations examining the former president. Mr. Pence plans to resist his subpoena by arguing that, as vice president, he served also as president of the Senate and is covered by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause, which protects members of Congress from being questioned in court about legislative acts.


Former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been at the center of other investigations into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
PHOTO: MANDEL NGAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
A lawyer for Mr. Meadows, George Terwilliger, and a Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. CNN earlier reported that Mr. Meadows has been subpoenaed.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Smith as special counsel in November to take on the dual investigations into Mr. Trump’s efforts to cling to power and the handling of classified documents at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in southern Florida. It couldn’t immediately be determined whether prosecutors want to question Mr. Meadows also in connection with the Mar-a-Lago investigation.

Mr. Meadows has been at the center of other investigations into Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse his electoral defeat in 2020. Last year, the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered him to testify before an Atlanta-area grand jury as part of a local prosecutor’s investigation into the former president’s efforts to interfere with election results in Georgia.

The House referred Mr. Meadows to the Justice Department for prosecution after holding him in contempt for refusing to testify before the panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The Justice Department declined to prosecute him.

In the separate investigation of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors are asking a judge to compel further testimony from one of the former president’s lawyers, in a bid to break through claims of executive privilege raised during a recent grand jury appearance, according to people familiar with the Justice Department’s action.

The prosecutors have asked the chief judge in Washington’s federal trial court to invoke the so-called crime-fraud exception, which would allow them to bypass attorney-client privilege and extract more testimony from Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran, the people said. The exception applies in instances where there is reason to believe legal advice has been used in furtherance of a crime.

The move to invoke the crime-fraud exception suggests that federal prosecutors suspect that Mr. Trump or his allies used Mr. Corcoran’s services in such a way.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump declined to comment on the tactics of the investigation, which he called a “targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump, concocted to try and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”

—Alex Leary contributed to this article.

Write to C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com and Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com

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