MSNBC legal analyst Neal Katyal suspects a coverup after former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows deleted damning information about Donald Trump from his book.
August 21, 2023

MSNBC legal analyst Neal Katyal suspects a coverup after former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows deleted damning information about Donald Trump from his book.

According to ABC News, Meadows confirmed he had no knowledge of Trump's alleged order to declassify a trove of documents before leaving office. ABC News also reviewed an early copy of Meadows' book, written before he deleted passages that reflected poorly on Trump.

During an interview on Sunday, MSNBC host Jen Psaki asked Katyal which of the 18 defendants in Trump's Georgia election interference case presented the biggest threat to the former president.

Katyal said defense attorneys should be advising their clients to flip on Trump.

"I would also say Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, who's kind of danced this dance for a long time about avoiding, avoiding charges, you know, by some somewhat cooperating with the feds," he continued. "And he's, I think, being called in Georgia in a much more dramatic way because he's indicted."

Katyal predicted that the unpublished version of Meadows' book could bolster the prosecution's case because it had information suggesting that Trump mishandled classified documents.

"And then the report suggests that he personally edited it out because he didn't believe at the time that Trump would have possessed a document like that at Bedminster," he explained.

The legal analyst said it was "certainly possible" for Meadows to face legal problems over his book.

"Now, it could be removed because Meadows says, I didn't actually think that was true," Katyal observed. "Seems implausible given all of the evidence we already have about that four-page document."

"It looks like it's the same document that was the basis for Jack Smith filing new charges against Donald Trump just a couple of weeks ago," he remarked. "But it sure seems like it's a coverup, Jen."

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