Ex-Trump chief of staff ordered to testify by Jan. 6 investigator

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has reportedly been subpoenaed by the grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in a new sign that the probe is picking up pace.

Special counsel Jack Smith is demanding that Meadows testify to what he knows about former President Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn his loss in the 2020 election that led to the violent attempted insurrection, CNN reported.

The summons, which CNN reported was served on Meadows last month, also demands documents from the man who was by Trump’s side as he allegedly hatched the plot to block President Biden from taking power.

Meadows is likely to fight the subpoena by invoking executive privilege, which generally protects secrecy of presidential decision making.

But most legal eagles believe the challenge will fail, especially since judges have already dismissed that claim and ordered him to testify in a Georgia grand jury’s probe of election interference in the Peach State.

Meadows was closely involved in all aspects of Trump’s plot to overturn his loss, including fake claims of election fraud and the scheme to come up with slates of bogus Trump electors in battleground states that Biden won, the congressional Jan. 6 committee hearings revealed.

He also had more contact with Trump than perhaps anyone else on Jan. 6 itself and was with the former president in the Oval Office as rioters marauded through the Capitol.

News of the move to subpoena one of Trump’s closest lieutenants comes as the special counsel’s office also subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence for testimony about many of the same issues.

Pence vows to fight his subpoena on grounds it violates the constitutional separation of powers, an argument that analysts also consider to be relatively weak.

The moves signal that Smith, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor, is moving aggressively to decide whether to charge Trump, a step that would be of momentous historical significance.

Smith is separately overseeing a probe into Trump’s improper removal of government documents when he left the White House.

That investigation is said to be much closer to completion. Prosecutors have asked a judge to compel one of Trump’s lawyers to answer questions about his effort to defy a subpoena for return of the documents.