NYT Mag on Mark Meadows: "Least trusted man in Washington"
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Cover: The New York Times Magazine
Robert Draper interviewed dozens of people for his 6,800-word, nine-page New York Times Magazine cover story, "How Mark Meadows Became the Least Trusted Man in Washington," about the former Trump chief of staff who could play a key role in prosecutions of his former boss.
Why it matters: Meadows faces charges in Georgia's sprawling racketeering case against former president Trump and his allies for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
- "The possibility that the former president's closest White House aide — a man with unsurpassed access to Trump during the final months of his presidency — might be seeking to wriggle out of further trouble by supplying damning information to prosecutors, and perhaps even testifying against Trump at trial, suggested a seemingly inescapable choice for Meadows: prison time or career suicide," Draper writes.
Zoom in: "Two close associates of the former president acknowledged to me that opinions in [Trumpworld] were sharply divided on the matter of Meadows's fidelity," Draper reports:
"Another Trump confidant conveyed to me the suspicion that Meadows was wearing a wire. In addressing the possibility that his former chief of staff had cut a deal to avoid a prison sentence, Trump confessed uncertainty about the matter on his social media platform, Truth Social, in a way that was most unlike him, posting on Oct. 24: 'Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation. I don't think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?'"
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Go deeper: Special counsel cites Trump's attack on Meadows in bid to resume gag order
