A former federal prosecutor said Mark Meadows’ gambit last week could come back to bite him.
Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, a co-defendant in the ex-president’s vast Georgia racketeering indictment, testified in an Atlanta courtroom on Aug. 28 as part of his bid to move the Fulton County case to federal court.
In an unusual move so early on in a case, branded risky by many legal experts, Meadows testified under oath for several hours, addressing various allegations and arguing his actions were carried out under his role as a federal official.
“I was one of the people who was really surprised that he took that big gamble,” Amy Lee Copeland, a Georgia criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, told CNN’s Jim Acosta over the weekend.
At one point during the hearing, Meadows flatly denied directing former Trump White House aide John McEntee to write a memo about how to delay or disrupt the certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021. The indictment accused Meadows of doing so.
Acosta asked if this could become a problem for Meadows when the Fulton County district attorney reveals her hand.
“Could that kind of testimony from Meadows backfire on him? If all of a sudden Fani Willis comes up with evidence that he doesn’t know about?” Acosta asked.
“Absolutely, and that’s the problem about locking in the story so early,” Copeland said.
“He hasn’t seen the evidence yet. I think the DA is set to give it out by September the 15th. But now he has locked himself into the story,” she continued.
She noted that this has already happened to an extent, when Meadows denied coordinating the fake electors plot to keep Trump in power, even though the prosecution had an email between Meadows and Trump campaign aide Jason Miller suggesting otherwise.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones is expected to make a decision on Meadows’ bid to switch courts any day now.
If successful, Meadows’ attorneys are expected to argue for the case to be dismissed.