RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation has finished its inquiry into whether Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s last White House chief of staff, committed voter fraud.
Meanwhile, a U.S. House committee is wrapping up its own investigation into the Jan. 6, 2022, riot at the Capitol, and Meadows has emerged as a key player in the events of that day. The committee has said it plans to make criminal referrals of unspecified people to the U.S. Department of Justice next week.
Many of Meadows’ text messages were turned over to the committee, and some have been published in the months since its investigation began, showing what Fox News personalities, members of Congress, a Supreme Court justice’s wife and others said to Meadows. In the latest disclosure, the website Talking Points Memo obtained some 450 texts between Meadows and Republican members of Congress — including Reps. Ted Budd and Greg Murphy of North Carolina — and published many on Monday.
The latest texts show lawmakers egged on opposition to the 2020 election results and stoked Trump’s claims of fraud.
Here’s the latest on both investigations.
SBI investigation
CBS 17 first reported that the SBI had finished its investigation into whether Meadows committed voter fraud, and submitted its file to the office of Attorney General Josh Stein so Stein’s office could make a final determination about potential charges.
Stein’s spokeswoman, Nazneen Ahmed, confirmed the Democratic attorney general’s office received the file but said she couldn’t comment further because it is part of an ongoing investigation.
District attorneys usually handle prosecutions, but the DA in Macon County had requested that the Special Prosecutions Section in the Department of Justice, which Stein leads, take over her role in the matter.
Allegations of voter fraud came to light after the New Yorker magazine talked to a former property owner where Meadows claimed to have lived. She said she had rented a home in Macon to Meadows’ wife for two months but neighbors told her Mark Meadows never visited the property and his wife only spent a few nights there.
Jan. 6 Investigation
The subjects of texts with 34 members of Congress range from questionable legal theories, to widely debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines, to suggesting Meadows urge Trump to invoke martial law during his final hours in office.
Murphy, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District in Eastern North Carolina, sent Meadows a text on Nov. 5, 2020, after the election and two days before President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election. The message included a theory — largely copied and pasted from an article on the far-right website Revolver — claiming that states with Republican legislatures had the power to appoint electors in the manner they choose and declare the winner of an election.
According to TPM, Meadows did not respond to Murphy’s texts and Murphy did not respond to a request for comment on them. Murphy’s number was identified by committee investigators and then independently verified through public records by TPM.
A spokesperson for Murphy did not respond Tuesday afternoon to an email from The News & Observer seeking comment.
Budd, a Republican who represents North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District and the state’s newly elected senator, sent a message on the evening of Nov. 7, 2020, claiming there were links between Dominion Voting Systems and billionaire George Soros, according to TPM.
“Praying for your health! FYI Dominion Voting Systems is owned by State Street Capital, which are Carlyle (Rubenstein alums), Rubenstein is a longtime co-investor with Soros Capital,” Budd wrote.
George Soros — a Jewish billionaire and Democratic donor and investor — has been a fixation of some pundits on the extreme right who place Soros, often using antisemitic language, at the center of conspiracies involving international plots for progressive causes. Budd appears to have misspelled Staple Street management, which owns Dominion.
Meadows, in some messages to associates, indicated that Dominion theories were too extreme despite having expressed openness to other conspiracy theories, according to TPM.
Budd’s number was identified by committee investigators and independently verified through public records by TPM.
CNN reported the existence of the Budd text to Meadows earlier this year among a trove of messages, without quoting from the text. Budd adviser Jonathan Felts, reached by The N&O on Tuesday, noted that the text had been previously reported, without commenting on its content.
TPM also lists Reps. Richard Hudson and Dan Bishop as having exchanged texts with Meadows but has not published the texts or specified what those lawmakers said.
According to TPM, a spokesperson for Hudson requested to see the texts identified as coming from Hudson in the Meadows log and then did not respond to subsequent requests for comment.
Bishop provided the following statement to TPM: “My analysis of the tactics, purposes and possible impacts of the Democrats’ national litigation campaign to disrupt 2020 election operations remains 100% factual and accurate. Consequently, I have no regrets about publishing it.”
A South Carolina Republican, Rep. Ralph Norman of Rock Hill, said Tuesday his message to Meadows calling for Trump to invoke martial law came out of “frustration,” The State reported.
“Obviously, Martial Law was never warranted,” Norman said in a statement. “That text message came from a source of frustration, on the heels of countless unanswered questions about the integrity of the 2020 election, without any way to slow down and examine those issues prior to the inauguration of the newly elected president.”
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