Mark Meadows goes to court to get his Trump White House records

CNN —

Former Donald Trump chief of staff-turned-co-defendant Mark Meadows has gone to court to gain access to records from his time in the White House, an effort to help contest the criminal charges against him in Georgia.

Court records show Meadows no longer has access to his calendars, emails and other documents from his time in the White House at the end of the Trump presidency, and Georgia prosecutors didn’t get them from federal authorities, either.

Because the Georgia authorities don’t have those records to turn over to Meadows as he prepares for his legal defense, he’s trying to get them from the federal government.

“These specific records identify, among other things, what Mr. Meadows was doing, what he was directing his subordinates to do, when they were doing it, and why,” his attorneys wrote.

Meadows sued in DC’s local court earlier this month to get the records, and the National Archives asked to move the case to federal court in Washington this week.

He has been charged along with Trump and several other allies of the former president over efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, and has pleaded not guilty.

Meadows is seeking records spanning Election Day 2020 to January 2021, including text messages among Oval Office staffers and several call logs between his office and the White House Situation Room and Air Force One, according to the court documents.

He also wants his official records from the White House beginning in March 2020 related to the presidential transition after the election, as well as major initiatives, including on the Afghanistan withdrawal of US troops and Covid-19 pandemic relief.