Mark Meadows, the ultimate White House chief of workers beneath President Donald J. Trump and a doubtlessly key determine in inquiries associated to Mr. Trump, has testified earlier than a federal grand jury listening to proof within the investigations being led by the particular counsel’s workplace, in keeping with two individuals briefed on the matter.

Mr. Meadows is a determine in each of the 2 distinct traces of inquiry being pursued by the particular counsel appointed to supervise the Justice Department’s scrutiny of Mr. Trump, Jack Smith.

One inquiry is concentrated on Mr. Trump’s efforts to cling to energy after shedding the 2020 election, culminating within the assault by a pro-Trump mob on the Capitol throughout congressional certification of the Electoral College outcomes on Jan. 6, 2021. The different is an investigation into Mr. Trump’s dealing with of lots of of categorised paperwork after he left workplace and whether or not he obstructed efforts to retrieve them.

It just isn’t clear exactly when Mr. Meadows testified or if investigators questioned him about one or each of the instances.

For months, individuals in Mr. Trump’s orbit have been puzzled by and cautious concerning the low profile saved by Mr. Meadows within the investigations. As studies surfaced of 1 witness after one other going into the grand jury or to be interviewed by federal investigators, Mr. Meadows has saved largely out of sight, and a few of Mr. Trump’s advisers consider he may very well be a big witness within the inquiries.

Mr. Trump himself has at occasions requested aides questions on how Mr. Meadows is doing, in keeping with an individual aware of the remarks.

Asked concerning the grand jury testimony, a lawyer for Mr. Meadows, George Terwilliger, stated, “Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.”

Mr. Meadows was a polarizing determine on the White House amongst a few of Mr. Trump’s aides, who noticed him as a free gatekeeper at finest throughout a closing yr during which the previous president moved aggressively to mildew the federal government in his picture.

Mr. Meadows was round for pivotal moments main as much as and after the 2020 election, as Mr. Trump plotted to attempt to keep in workplace and thwart Joseph R. Biden Jr. from being sworn in to succeed him. Some of them have been described in lots of of textual content messages that Mr. Meadows turned over to the House choose committee that investigated the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol earlier than he determined to cease cooperating. Those texts served as a street map for House investigators.

But Mr. Meadows additionally has perception into efforts by the National Archives to retrieve roughly two dozen packing containers of presidential materials that officers had been advised Mr. Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021. Mr. Meadows was one in all Mr. Trump’s representatives to the archives, and he had some position in making an attempt to debate the matter with Mr. Trump, in keeping with two individuals briefed on the matter.

Mr. Meadows can also be now related tangentially to a doubtlessly very important piece of proof that investigators uncovered in latest months: an audio recording of an interview that Mr. Trump gave to 2 individuals helping Mr. Meadows in writing a memoir of his White House years.

Mr. Meadows didn’t attend the assembly, which occurred in July 2021 at Mr. Trump’s membership at Bedminster, N.J. During the assembly, Mr. Trump referred to a doc he appeared to have in entrance of him and advised that he ought to have declassified it however that he not may, since he was out of workplace.

That recording could undercut Mr. Trump’s claim that he believed he had declassified all materials nonetheless held at his properties for months after he left workplace.