前总统唐纳德·特朗普的据知情人士透露，白宫最后一任幕僚长马克·梅多斯(Mark Meadows)今年至少与特别顾问杰克·史密斯的团队谈了三次，包括在联邦大陪审团面前谈了一次，这是在史密斯授予梅多斯宣誓作证豁免权之后发生的。
消息人士称，梅多斯告知史密斯的团队，他在2020年总统大选后的几周内多次告诉特朗普，他们面临的重大投票欺诈指控是毫无根据的，这与特朗普关于选举的多产言论截然不同。
据消息人士称，梅多斯还告诉联邦调查人员，特朗普在2020年11月3日投票结束后几个小时，最终结果出来之前，第一次声称赢得了选举，当时他对公众“不诚实”。
“显然我们没有赢，”一位消息人士援引梅多斯事后告诉史密斯的团队。
特朗普称前总统在白宫最亲密、级别最高的助手之一梅多斯是一位“特殊的朋友”和“一位伟大的参谋长——尽善尽美”
据称，对梅多斯告诉调查人员的内容的描述进一步揭示了史密斯团队在起诉特朗普涉嫌试图非法保留权力以及关于2020年大选的“散布谎言”。这些描述还暴露了梅多斯等特朗普的忠实者在支持和捍卫特朗普方面走了多远。
消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，史密斯的调查人员非常有兴趣询问梅多斯关于他在任期最后几个月与特朗普进行的选举相关对话，以及梅多斯是否真的相信他在特朗普离任后出版的一本书中的一些说法——这本书承诺“纠正”特朗普的记录。
2020年10月21日，白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯在华盛顿白宫外对媒体发表讲话。
克里斯·克莱波尼斯/彭博
美国广播公司新闻已经确认了书中的几个说法，这些说法似乎与据称梅多斯私下告诉调查人员的内容相矛盾。
根据梅多斯的书，选举在“自由媒体的盟友”的帮助下被“窃取”和“操纵”，他们忽视了“欺诈的实际证据，就在众目睽睽之下，任何人都可以访问和分析。”
但是，正如美国广播公司新闻所描述的那样，梅多斯私下告诉史密斯的调查人员，直到今天，他还没有看到任何可以让现任总统乔·拜登离开白宫的欺诈证据，他告诉他们，他同意政府当时的评估，即2020年总统选举是美国历史上最安全的选举。
“我们确实赢得了这次选举”
在选举日之前几个月，特朗普已经在质疑选举的完整性。然后，在2020年11月3日投票结束后的几个小时内——特朗普开始失去关键州——特朗普在国家电视台上声称，这一切都是“一场重大欺诈”。
“坦率地说，我们确实赢得了这场选举，”特朗普宣称。
今年早些时候，梅多斯告诉调查人员，鉴于选票仍在统计中，几个州的结果尚未出来，他一直认为特朗普在发表上述声明时不诚实。
然而，公开证词显示，在选举后的几周内，梅多斯帮助特朗普审查了鲁迪·朱利安尼等人向特朗普提出的欺诈指控，特朗普让朱利安尼负责让特朗普留在白宫的法律努力。
但消息人士称，梅多斯说，到12月中旬，他私下告诉特朗普，朱利安尼没有拿出任何证据来支持他提出的许多指控。时任司法部长比尔·巴尔(Bill Barr)也在椭圆形办公室的一次会议上通知特朗普和梅多斯，选举欺诈的指控“没有被排除”，巴尔去年在国会作证时回忆道。
梅多斯曾公开表示，他认为“一些指控”仍需要“进一步调查”，他对12月底的选举“还没有得出结论”。
也是在那个时候，特朗普已经用尽了法律选项。当美国最高法院在2020年12月11日，拒绝了他最后的法庭挑战据消息人士透露，特朗普对梅多斯说了一些话，大意是“那就这样结束了”，或者“就这样了，”梅多斯向调查人员回忆道。
巴尔回忆说，特朗普仍然没有让步，坚持认为欺诈行为普遍存在，但司法部没有“寻找它”。
在与调查人员交谈时，梅多斯被特别问到特朗普是否向他承认过他输掉了选举。据消息人士透露，梅多斯告诉调查人员，他从未听特朗普说过这话。
2021年1月2日，梅多斯帮助建立了现在臭名昭著的电话在特朗普和佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬斯伯格之间，特朗普敦促拉芬斯伯格“找到11，780张选票”...因为我们赢得了这个州。”
梅多斯公开表示，他基本上介绍了电话中的每个人——这得到了公开的电话记录的证实——他还表示，他只是试图帮助他们解决格鲁吉亚选举结果的争端。
根据巴尔的证词，特朗普在电话中提到了对藏在行李箱中的欺诈性选票的指控，司法部已经“认真研究”并揭穿了这些指控。
正如对美国广播公司新闻的描述，梅多斯告诉史密斯的调查人员，大约在那个时候，他多次想辞职，因为担心处理某些欺诈指控的方式可能会产生负面影响，但他最终没有离开，因为他想帮助确保权力的和平转移。
“大量的谎言”
在一名代笔人的帮助下，梅多斯在特朗普离任近一年后出版了他的书《酋长的酋长》。
“关于总统在白宫的时间，已经发表的大量谎言令人震惊，”这本书说。"我认为这本书是纠正记录的一个小机会。"
特朗普甚至亲自推广了这本书，在2021年12月发表声明称，这本书“理所当然地花了很多时间谈论发生的大规模选举欺诈...也被称为世纪之罪。”
但消息人士告诉ABC新闻，在与史密斯的调查人员交谈时，梅多斯承认他实际上并不相信他书中的一些陈述。
据消息人士透露，梅多斯告诉调查人员，他不同意书中所说的“我们向司法部提交的许多案件都没有得到认真调查。”
消息人士称，梅多斯告诉调查人员，他认为司法部正在认真对待欺诈指控，妥善调查这些指控，并尽一切努力寻找合法的欺诈案件。他告诉调查人员，他在大选后几周向特朗普转达了所有这些指控。
同样，正如美国广播公司新闻的消息来源所述，尽管梅多斯告诉调查人员，朱利安尼从未拿出选举中重大欺诈的证据，但他的书提到朱利安尼努力揭露“选举之夜的欺诈和肮脏的伎俩”。
“操纵选举的人知道，这些违规行为最终会被曝光...[所以]他们进行了手术，然后攻击任何敢于质疑他们所做事情的人，”他在书中写道。
2021年11月，梅多斯在右翼媒体上宣传他的书时走得更远。当一名播客主持人问及他是否认为2020年的选举结果是欺诈性的时，梅多斯回答说:“我确实相信有许多欺诈性的州...我至少在宾夕法尼亚州[和]乔治亚州看到了非法活动”——这里指的是拜登入主白宫的两个关键州。
据消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，根据伪证罪的处罚，梅多斯向史密斯的调查人员提供了一个完全不同的评估，告诉他们他从未看到任何会破坏选举结果的欺诈证据。
我想这些人会更难过
美国众议院调查委员会的最终报告2021年1月6日，对美国国会大厦的攻击指责梅多斯在他的书中包括“一些故意的谎言”，但该委员会的报告专注于对特朗普在那决定性的一天的行为的指控，而不是更广泛地对选举的指控。
梅多斯告诉调查人员的部分内容似乎与包括前梅多斯助理卡西迪·哈钦森在内的其他白宫高级助手向众议院委员会提供的更广泛的证词相符，这些证词描述了一位总统似乎犹豫不决，不愿采取果断行动，在2021年1月6日阻止暴力暴徒。
消息人士称，梅多斯证实，在骚乱展开的时候，川普与当时的众议院共和党领袖凯文·麦卡锡通了电话，并告诉麦卡锡，“我想这些人比你更不安。”
然而，根据梅多斯对调查人员的说法，特朗普似乎越来越担心，因为他了解了更多关于国会大厦发生的事情，消息人士称，当特朗普听说有人在那里被枪杀时，他明显感到震惊。
特朗普的支持者阿什莉·巴比特(Ashli Babbitt)试图突破众议院会议厅附近的路障入口时遭到致命枪击。当天，其他特朗普的支持者受到了致命伤害，一名执法人员在试图保卫国会大厦时死亡。
梅多斯没有在史密斯的联邦案件中受到指控，他与特朗普、朱利安尼和其他16人一起被佐治亚州当局指控涉嫌试图推翻选举结果在那种状态下。被指控的四人已经认罪，并同意为检方作证，而包括梅多斯、特朗普和朱利安尼在内的其他人则不服罪，正在等待审判。
梅多斯试图将佐治亚州对他的指控转移到联邦法院，但是努力被拒绝。他现在正在对这一决定提出上诉。
从2013年到2020年，梅多斯在国会代表北卡罗来纳州，在那里他还领导了保守派众议院自由党团两年。
根据史密斯团队的豁免令，Meadows今年早些时候向大陪审团提供的信息不能在联邦起诉中用于反对他。
特朗普已经不服罪在与选举相关的联邦案件中。
作为对这些事态发展的回应，特朗普总统竞选团队的一名发言人在一份声明中说，“在拜登的这些政治迫害中，错误、不道德的泄露只会强调这些空洞的案件对我们的民主和司法系统有多么有害，以及特朗普总统的第一修正案权利不受违反宪法的禁言令侵犯是多么重要。透明度和言论自由是打击阴暗流言的唯一途径。”
这位发言人补充说:“特朗普总统不会被乔·拜登(Joe Biden)不诚实的选举干预所吓倒，他将继续专注于赢回白宫，让美国再次伟大。”
史密斯的发言人和梅多斯的律师拒绝就此事向ABC新闻发表评论。
Ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows granted immunity, tells special counsel he warned Trump about 2020 claims: Sources
Former PresidentDonald Trump'sfinal chief of staff in the White House, Mark Meadows, has spoken with special counsel Jack Smith's team at least three times this year, including once before a federal grand jury, which came only after Smith granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The sources said Meadows informed Smith's team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump's prolific rhetoric regarding the election.
According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being "dishonest" with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.
"Obviously we didn't win," a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith's team in hindsight.
Trump has called Meadows, one of the former president's closest and highest-ranking aides in the White House, a "special friend" and "a great chief of staff -- as good as it gets."
The descriptions of what Meadows allegedly told investigators shed further light on the evidence Smith's team has amassed as it prosecutes Trump for allegedly trying tounlawfully retain powerand "spread lies" about the 2020 election. The descriptions also expose how far Trump loyalists like Meadows have gone to support and defend Trump.
Sources told ABC News that Smith's investigators were keenly interested in questioning Meadows about election-related conversations he had with Trump during his final months in office, and whether Meadows actually believed some of the claims he included in a book he published after Trump left office -- a book that promised to "correct the record" on Trump.
ABC News has identified several assertions in the book that appear to be contradicted by what Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.
According to Meadows' book, the election was "stolen" and "rigged" with help from "allies in the liberal media," who ignored "actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze."
But, as described to ABC News, Meadows privately told Smith's investigators that -- to this day -- he has yet to see any evidence of fraud that would have kept now-president Joe Biden from the White House, and he told them he agrees with a government assessment at the time that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure election in U.S. history.
'We did win this election'
Trump was already questioning the integrity of the election months before Election Day. Then, within hours of polls closing on Nov. 3, 2020 -- as Trump was beginning to lose key states -- Trump claimed on national TV that it was all "a major fraud."
"Frankly, we did win this election," Trump declared.
Meadows told investigators earlier this year that he's long believed Trump was being dishonest when he made that statement, given the fact that votes were still being counted and the results from several states were not in yet.
Nevertheless, public testimony has shown that in the weeks after the election, Meadows helped Trump vet allegations of fraud that were making their way to Trump from people like Rudy Giuliani, whom Trump put in charge of legal efforts to keep Trump in the White House.
But Meadows said that by mid-December, he privately informed Trump that Giuliani hadn't produced any evidence to back up the many allegations he was making, sources said. Then-attorney general Bill Barr also informed Trump and Meadows in an Oval Office meeting that allegations of election fraud were "not panning out," as Barr recounted in testimony to Congress last year.
Meadows has said publicly that he believed "a number of allegations" still warranted "further investigation," and that he "hadn't reached a conclusion" on the election overall by late December.
Also by then, Trump had run out of legal options. When the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2020,denied his final court challenge, Trump told Meadows something to the effect of, "Then that's the end," or, "So that's it," Meadows recalled to investigators, according to sources.
Still, Trump wouldn't back down, insisting there was widespread fraud but that the Justice Department wasn't "looking for it," Barr recalled.
While speaking with investigators, Meadows was specifically asked if Trump ever acknowledged to him that he'd lost the election. Meadows told investigators he never heard Trump say that, according to sources.
On Jan. 2, 2021, Meadows helped set up thenow-infamous phone callbetween Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, during which Trump pressed Raffensberger to "find 11,780 votes ... because we won the state."
Meadows has said publicly that he essentially introduced everyone on the call -- which is corroborated by transcripts of the call that were made public -- and he has said he was simply trying to help them resolve a dispute over Georgia's election results.
On the call, Trump mentioned allegations of fraudulent ballots hidden in suitcases, which the Justice Department had already taken "a hard look at" and debunked, according to Barr's testimony.
As described to ABC News, Meadows told Smith's investigators that, around that time, there were many times he wanted to resign over concerns that the way certain allegations of fraud were being handled could have a negative impact -- but he ultimately didn't leave because he wanted to help ensure a peaceful transfer of power.
'Sheer volume of falsehoods'
Aided by a ghostwriter, Meadows published his book, "The Chief's Chief," nearly a year after Trump left office.
"[T]he sheer volume of falsehoods that have been published about the president's time in the White House is astounding," the book says. "I consider this book a small opportunity to correct the record."
Trump even promoted the book himself, issuing a statement in December 2021 saying the book "rightfully spends much time talking about the large-scale Election Fraud that took place ... also known as the Crime of the Century."
But sources told ABC News that when speaking with Smith's investigators, Meadows conceded that he doesn't actually believe some of the statements in his book.
According to the sources, Meadows told investigators that he doesn't agree with what's in his book when it says "our many referrals to the Department of Justice were not seriously investigated."
Meadows told investigators he believes the Justice Department was taking allegations of fraud seriously, properly investigating them, and doing all they could to find legitimate cases of fraud -- and he told investigators he relayed all that to Trump a few weeks after the election, the sources said.
Similarly -- as described by sources to ABC News -- despite Meadows telling investigators that Giuliani never produced evidence of significant fraud in the election, his book refers to Giuliani's efforts to expose "the fraud, and the dirty tricks on election night."
"The people who rigged this election knew that eventually, these irregularities would come to light ... [So] they conducted the operation, then attacked anyone who dared ask questions about what they had done," his book says.
Meadows went even further while promoting his book on right-wing media in November 2021. When asked by a podcast host if he believes the outcome of the 2020 election was fraudulent, Meadows responded, "I do believe that there are a number of fraudulent states ... I've seen at least illegal activity in Pennsylvania [and] in Georgia" -- referring to two key states that clinched the White House for Biden.
Under the penalty of perjury, Meadows offered a vastly different assessment to Smith's investigators, telling them he's never seen any evidence of fraud that would undermine the election's outcome, according to what sources told ABC News.
'I guess these people are more upset'
The final report by the U.S. House committee investigating theJan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol accused Meadows of including "a number of intentional falsehoods" in his book, but the committee's report focused on allegations about Trump's actions on that fateful day, not claims about the election more broadly.
Portions of what Meadows told investigators appear to align with broader testimony that other top White House aides, including former Meadows assistant Cassidy Hutchinson, provided to the House committee, describing a president seemingly hesitant to take decisive action to stop the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sources said Meadows confirmed that at one point, as the riots were unfolding, Trump got on a call with then-House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, and told McCarthy, "I guess these people are more upset than you are."
However, according to what Meadows told investigators, Trump seemed to grow increasingly concerned as he learned more about what was transpiring at the Capitol, and Trump was visibly shaken when he heard that someone had been shot there, sources said.
Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot when she tried to break through a barricaded entrance near the House chamber. Other Trump supporters sustained fatal injuries that day, and a law enforcement officer died after trying to defend the Capitol.
Meadows has not been charged in Smith's federal case, he has been charged -- along with Trump, Giuliani and 16 others -- by authorities in Georgia for allegedly trying tooverturn the election resultsin that state. Four of those charged have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution, while the others, including Meadows, Trump and Giuliani, have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Meadows sought to have the Georgia case against him moved to federal court, but thateffort was denied. He is now appealing that decision.
From 2013 to 2020, Meadows represented North Carolina in Congress, where he also led the conservative House Freedom Caucus for two years.
Under the immunity order from Smith's team, the information Meadows provided to the grand jury earlier this year can't be used against him in a federal prosecution.
Trump haspleaded not guiltyin the election-related federal case against him.
In response to these developments, a spokesperson for Trump's presidential campaign said in a statement, "Wrongful, unethical leaks throughout these Biden witch-hunts only underscore how detrimental these empty cases are to our Democracy and System of Justice and how vital it is for President Trump's First Amendment rights to not be infringed upon by un-Constitutional gag orders. Transparency and free speech are the only way to combat murky gossip."
"President Trump will not be deterred by Crooked Joe Biden's election interference and will continue to focus on winning back the White House and Making America Great Again," the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for Smith and an attorney for Meadows declined to comment to ABC News for this story.
