Speaker 1: We have a blockbuster new report out of Rolling Stone.
Donald Trump's lawyers increasingly believe that Mark Meadows, his own former chief of
staff, is going down legally.
And it seems as though they may be getting closer and closer to abandoning meadows.
Now, there is a parallel story here to this, which is that yesterday I played for you video
from the January six committee wherein Liz Cheney says We are now aware of Donald Trump
personally calling a forthcoming witness someone who has not yet testified and trying to tamper
with the witness, trying to influence or in some way affect their potentially forthcoming
testimony.
We don't know who that person is, but there's rampant speculation that it's Mark Meadows.
And parallel to that, there is now this incredible story from from Rolling Stone that Trump's
lawyers think Meadows is going down.
And the question now is how to minimize the sort of secondary damage, the shrapnel with
which others may be hit if indeed Mark Meadows testifies and goes down.
Rolling Stone Writing Exclusive Trump's lawyers think Mark Meadows is going down.
The January six committee is probing the former chief of staff's finances, Rolling Stone has
learned, adding to a long list of legal headaches.
As she opened the January six committee on Tuesday, Liz Cheney ticked through a list
of names of people.
Trump's legal team have attempted to pin the blame for the Capitol attack, naming the president's
lawyers, MAGA friendly lawmakers and others.
Mark Meadows didn't make the list yet, but Trump's inner circle increasingly views Meadows
as a likely fall guy for the former president's attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Members of Trump's legal team are actively planning certain strategies around Meadows
downfall, including possible criminal charges.
Trump has himself begun the process of distancing from some of his one time senior aides alleged
actions around January six.
This is the new part.
MEADOWS Already bleak legal prospects could get even worse because Rolling Stone has learned
that the January six committee has been quietly probing his financial dealings and any new
revelations would add to an already long list of unethical and potentially illegal actions
he's accused of taking on behalf of Donald Trump.
Quote, Everyone is strategizing around the likelihood that Mark is in a lot of trouble,
says a lawyer close to the former president.
Everyone who knows what they're doing anyway.
Rolling Stone spoke to eight sources familiar with the matter everyone still in Trump's
orbit or on his legal defense or in Republican circles in contact with Trump.
Everybody's speaking candidly because they were provided anonymity.
So there's a few interesting components to this.
First of all, it would not be unlike Donald Trump to run a multi-pronged strategy publicly
distance from the people that might be going down and privately try to influence them in
order for them to damage you less.
And it's completely speculative.
But there's the question was the phone call that Trump made to try to tamper with a witness
to Mark Meadows?
The other part of this is that Meadows is actually the financial questions around Meadows,
and the voting questions have been going on for a while, if I recall correctly.
There's sort of two avenues to this, and it's sort of strange that everybody around Trump
has these problems.
Mark Meadows had one issue related to voter registration.
I'm kind of giving you the 30,000 foot view, but apparently Meadows owns a trailer somewhere
that he has never even been to and was registered to vote at that address, which is weird, and
also registered to vote elsewhere.
So that was one thing we talked about maybe six, eight, nine months ago, something like
that.
And then again, if I'm going from memory, I believe that on the financial side, there's
something tax related to Mark Meadows and it also may relate to what state do you formally
live in or whatever the case may be.
So if and how that connects directly to Trump is a question, but anything that puts him
more on the radar of investigators is potentially bad for Donald Trump.
So as far as the witnesses, there's a January 6th hearing sometime next week.
I don't.
Even know that it's been scheduled specifically yet.
And we don't know who the witness is going to be, who the witnesses potentially are going
to be.
We've been told it's going to be absolutely stunning.
Could it be Meadows?
Could it be Steve Bannon?
I don't know.
But it could be maybe the most interesting day of the hearings altogether.
Liz Cheney made clear this is a witness you have not yet seen and that there's a long
list of people that could fall into that category.
But we will soon know.
And if Meadows goes down, I mean, remember the strategy from these people, Trump, etc.,
has been, whenever anyone gets in trouble, minimize their role, minimize their role in
the Trump campaign or the administration or in whatever.
It's going to be impossible to minimize the role of the last and final chief of staff
that Donald Trump had, who was personally doing the bidding of Trump in the lead up
to the January six riot.
I mean, they'll try.
Of course they'll try.
But it's not going to be I think even the average American, as we like to say, is going
to see through that.
Let me know your thoughts.
Who do you expect to be the blockbuster witness coming up next week?
You can find me on Twitter at David Pakman.
And we'll be covering it, of course