Conservative attorney George Conway speculated Wednesday that Mark Meadows’ “strange quietness” on the Jan. 6 investigation may suggest he is cooperating with prosecutors.
Donald Trump on Sunday announced that he had received a letter from special counsel Jack Smith informing him he was a target of the probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Meadows served as Trump’s White House chief of staff during the election and the former president’s subsequent efforts to change the outcome. Last year, one of his former aides testified to the House committee investigating the Capitol attack that Meadows knew in advance things “might get real, real bad” on Jan. 6, 2021.
Meadows has testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 case, The New York Times and other outlets reported last month. Trump’s legal team has had no contact with Meadows and has been irked by his silence, according to CNN.
“We saw in the documents case that there’s basically only one person who didn’t end up cooperating in some way, which [was] Waltine Nauta,” Conway said on CNN, referring to a separate federal investigation into Trump also led by Smith.
The former president was indicted in that case on 37 felony counts last month over his handling of classified documents. His aide Waltine Nauta was also charged.
“We’ve seen some very strange quietness from, for example, Mark Meadows,” Conway told CNN’s Anderson Cooper as he reacted to Trump’s target letter announcement. “I just have the feeling something’s going on there. I mean, he’s someone who ought to be every bit as exposed as Donald Trump. Yet, he has been so quiet.”
“Just seems like there’s something up with him,” he added.
Conway noted that the situation is “very difficult to read” and “we don’t know whether or not target letters went out to people and they’re just keeping their mouth shut.”
He said it was also possible that other individuals who will be charged in the investigation did not receive target letters.
“There are circumstances where prosecutors do that,” he said.
The target letter Smith sent to Trump reportedly referenced three federal laws: conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under color of law and tampering with victims, witnesses or informants.
Recipients of target letters are often, but not always, indicted, according to NBC News.