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Given his recent indictment in Georgia, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows already had plenty to worry about. But as The Daily Beast reported, the Republican’s troubles managed to get a little worse late last week.
The publisher of Mark Meadows’ book The Chief’s Chief has filed suit against the former White House chief of staff, seeking millions in damages after he reportedly copped to lying in the book about the 2020 election being “rigged” and “stolen.”
For those just joining us, let’s briefly revisit our recent coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
ABC News gave the political world a bit of a jolt two weeks ago with a report that said Meadows had not only spoken multiple times to members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team, the Republican had also appeared before a federal grand jury as part of an immunity agreement. (Meadows’ attorney disputed the reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, calling it “largely inaccurate.”)
The same ABC News report added that Meadows also told investigators that the former president was being “dishonest” when he first claimed to have won the election before the final results were tallied.
“Obviously we didn’t win,” a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith’s team in hindsight.
Trump did not respond well to the news. Indeed, the former president lashed out online in ways that caught the special counsel’s attention. But as part of his online tantrum, Trump also wrote, “Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless. He certainly didn’t say that in his book!”
It’s not exactly a secret that Trump lies with staggering frequency, but in this specific instance, his pushback raised a legitimate point: Meadows’ book really did tell readers that the 2020 election was “stolen” and “rigged,” reality be damned.
In fact, Meadows wrote that nefarious schemers partnered with their “allies in the liberal media,” who ignored “actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze.”
These nonsensical claims, of course, weren’t at all true, but just as notably in this instance, if the ABC News report was accurate, the former White House chief of staff knew the claims weren’t true — but he included them in his book anyway.
In its civil suit against the former White House chief of staff, All Seasons Press is seeking more than $1 million in damages. Watch this space.
This post updates our related recent coverage.