White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said he has seen “additional” documents that are pertinent to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation.
Meadows, a former congressional investigator, told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday that he does not have an update on Durham’s work but noted that these records he has viewed reflect poorly on top FBI officials who were involved in the origins of the operation looking into ties between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
“Additional documents that I’ve been able to review say that a number of the players, the Peter Strzoks, the Andy McCabes, the James Comeys, and even others in the administration previously are in real trouble because of their willingness to participate in an unlawful act and I use the word unlawful at best, it broke all kinds of protocols and at worst people should go to jail as I mentioned previously,” Meadows said.
So far, Durham has charged one person with criminal wrongdoing in his investigation. A former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty last month to a false statements charge for fraudulently altering a CIA email during the process of the bureau seeking a court’s permission to renew an order to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser.
Meadows was interviewed after Strzok, the former FBI agent who helped open the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016, has defended the bureau’s inquiry and argued the president was “compromised” by Russia during a media blitz for his new book.
Meadows said the documents don’t back up Strzok, who was fired from the bureau in 2018 after anti-Trump text messages he sent to a colleague came to light.
Trump has “encouraged not only declassification, but full transparency. He has nothing to hide,” Meadows said. “I can tell you, it’s real easy for Peter Strzok to go on 60 Minutes when he doesn’t have to raise his right hand and tell the truth. In all of this interview, I can tell you this. It’s not backed up by the facts. It’s not backed up by documents that I’ve seen. And ultimately, his house of cards will come falling down.”
