Trump's ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides must provide more testimony for January 6 investigation, judge rules
- Mark Meadows and other Trump aides were ordered to offer more testimony to a grand jury investigating January 6.
- A federal judge dismissed Trump's claims of executive privilege in a sealed order last week.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and many other top advisers to former President Donald Trump must provide additional testimony to the federal grand jury investigating the ex-president's role in challenging the 2020 election results and in the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, a federal judge ruled last week in a sealed order, according to an ABC News report on Friday.
In the order, US District Judge Beryl Howell dismissed Trump's claims of executive privilege for Meadows and other former officials, including Trump advisors Nick Luna, John McEntee and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Robert O'Brien, and deputy secretary of homeland security Ken Cuccinelli, sources told ABC.
US special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the January 6 probe, previously subpoenaed Trump's aides for testimony and documents. Some of them had appeared before the grand jury but declined to answer certain questions about their interactions with Trump, ABC reported.
Trump had invoked executive privilege, or the president's right to keep communications private, in an effort to block the subpoenas. His legal team is expected to appeal Howell's order compelling his aides' testimony, according to ABC.
The January 6 probe is one of several major legal cases hanging over Trump. Also on Friday, Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran appeared before a grand jury investigating whether Trump potentially mishandled classified documents that the FBI retrived from his Mar-a-Lago home with a search warrant. Corcoran was previously ordered to provide more testimony for the investigation after a federal judge rejected his claims of attorney-client privilege.
Separately, a Manhattan grand jury appears to be nearing possible criminal charges against Trump in connection to a hush-money payment made during his 2016 campaign to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump, who's running for the White House in 2024, has also been under investigation in Georgia's Fulton County over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.