What’s up with Mark Meadows?
Those of you old enough to remember (or those of you who are younger students of past presidential infamies) will recall HR “Bob” Haldeman. Haldeman was Richard Nixon’s notorious chief of Staff. He was also neck deep in the Watergate scandal and did 18 months in the United States Penitentiary, Lompoc, on that account.
If you’ve heard of Haldeman and his infamies then chances are you’ve also heard of John W Dean III. Dean was Nixon’s White House counsel and, instead of doing “real” jail time, he did four months in a cushy safe house from which he continued to cooperate with the Watergate Special Prosecutor. He testified against Haldeman and others, the ones who wound up doing real jail time.
If you’re wondering what it would have looked like had Haldeman done a Dean and testified against Nixon, then wonder no more. You see, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s disgraced Chief of Staff, very well may have done just that.
For one thing, nowhere in Jack Smith’s indictment of Donald Trump is Meadows mentioned in a significant way. What’s more — and most bizarre of all — he is nowhere to be found among the six “anonymous” unindicted co-conspirators. Why is this so and what does it all mean?
Mark Meadows’ lawyer, George Terwilliger, called a report that his client had reached a plea agreement with the Special Counsel’s office “complete bullshit.” But Andrew McCabe, the former Acting Director of the FBI, said that the absence of Meadows as a co-conspirator in the indictment “lends a lot of credence to the theory that he is working with or cooperating with or has provided significant information to Jack Smith and his team.” In typical mafioso-like parlance, the thrice-indicted, twice-impeached thug Donald Trump has called Meadows a “rat.”
So what’s the truth? No one knows for sure, but I suspect we are going to be hearing a lot more from Mr Meadows very soon. Meadows was a principal figure in the planning and execution of the January 6 insurrection, and his absence positively screams “cooperating witness.” Therefore, don’t be surprised if Meadows has joined the ranks of John Dean and become a cooperating witness against Donald Trump.
And what a witness he will be! Meadows enjoyed full access and the complete confidence of Trump. He was literally in the room when everything happened, and his text messages alone (those that we have been allowed to see so far) are absolute dynamite. Everybody from Ginni Thomas to Sean Hannity to Donald Trump Jr to Marjorie Taylor Greene are represented in Meadows’ scandalous text messages.
But it’s the stuff we haven’t seen, the private conversations and personal revelations that we haven’t heard about that will be the real stunners. And who knows, Lordy, there could even be tapes!
So put a bookmark in the chapter about Mark Meadows. He is going to have to play some kind of role, and you can probably bet green money that it’s going to be a role on “the right side of the ‘v’” in the matter of the people of the United States v. Donald Trump. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.