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- ABC News and Bloomberg reported Mark Meadows was granted immunity in Jack Smith's election-interference probe.
- Meadows testified before a grand jury earlier this year, the reports said.
- It would make Meadows the latest Trump ally to strike a deal with prosecutors.
Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump's final White House chief of staff, told special counsel Jack Smith's team that he explained to Trump that the 2020 election was not being stolen, according to reports from ABC News and Bloomberg — even though he later pushed election fraud claims in his book.
The outlets, both citing anonymous sources, reported Tuesday that Meadows was granted immunity in exchange for agreeing to testify under oath in Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the election and the events of January 6, 2021. Trump is facing four criminal charges related to this investigation.
Unnamed sources familiar with the situation told ABC News and Bloomberg that Meadows testified before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the election interference probe.
When reached by Insider, a spokesperson for Meadows referred to a statement issued by Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger, to CBS News: "I told ABC that their story was largely inaccurate. People will have to judge for themselves the decision to run it anyway." It was not clear what Terwilliger told ABC News was inaccurate.
Terwilliger did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Both ABC News and Bloomberg reported that Meadows told the grand jury he had informed Trump in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election that claims of mass election fraud were baseless.
ABC News sources said Meadows claimed Trump was being "dishonest" when he announced he had won the reelection hours after the polls closed before many votes were even counted.
Trump continued to claim the election was stolen and was not publicly disputed by Meadows even as others in the administration, like Attorney General Bill Barr, came out to say the fraud claims were baseless.
Meadows also doubled down on the election fraud claims well after he and Trump left the White House, despite what the recent reporting says he told the grand jury.
In his 2021 book, "The Chief's Chief," Meadows used language including "stolen" and "rigged" when discussing the election, as first pointed out by ABC News and seen in the book by Insider, and he blamed "the liberal media" for ignoring allegations of fraud.
"In time, it became clear that the media's plan—the "long con"—had worked," he wrote. "Soon, anyone who had questions about the election was labeled a nutcase. And as anyone who's ever seen an Alfred Hitchcock film knows, trying to prove you're not insane once someone has already told the world that you are, only serves to make you look . . . well, like an insane person."
CNN noted that Meadows wrote in the book he did try to explain to Trump how he lost the election.
Meadows is the latest Trump ally who is reported to have testified the election was not stolen or pleaded guilty to charges related to election interference.
Trump's former attorney Jenna Ellis cried in court on Tuesday as she pleaded guilty to one count related to her efforts to overturn the election in Georgia. Her plea deal allows her to avoid jail time if she cooperates with prosecutors.
Other former Trump attorneys, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, also flipped and took surprise plea deals last week.
A Trump spokesman said Trump was focused on the 2024 campaign and railed against, "Wrongful, unethical leaks" and the limited federal gag order placed on Trump by the judge in this case.
"Transparency and free speech are the only way to combat murky gossip," the spokesman said.