The publisher of Mark Meadows’ White House memoir is suing Donald Trump’s former chief of staff for allegedly publicly contradicting the main theme of his own book: That the 2020 election was stolen.
It comes after Meadows reportedly told the special counsel investigating Trump that he had warned the former president against making claims of fraud, and that neither he nor his boss really believed the election had been stolen.
All Seasons Publishing (ASP) launched a lawsuit at Sarasota County Court, Florida, on Friday.
It said it had pulled ‘The Chief’s Chief’ from shelves a day earlier.
‘Meadows’ reported statements to the special prosecutor and/or his staff and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements in his book, one central theme of which is that President Trump was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election and that election was “stolen” and “rigged” with help from “allies in the liberal media,” who ignored “actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to analyze,’ leading to the wrongful election of President Trump,’ the suit reads.
Mark Meadows’ memoir, ‘The Chief’s Chief,’ was published a year after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Now he is being sued by the publisher
‘The Chief’s Chief’ was published on December 7, 2021, by All Seasons Publishing
It even points out that one chapter opens with the sentence: ‘I KNEW HE DIDN’T LOSE.’
The publisher is suing Meadows for the return of a $350,000 advance and more than $1 million in costs and damages.
It is just the latest twist in the legal fall-out from Trump’s turbulent time in office.
Aides and advisers have found themselves caught in expensive litigation particularly over Trump’s attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
The ‘Chief’s Chief’ was published a year after Trump lost the election. And Meadows billed it as a chance to lay out the truth of what happened.
‘The sheer volume of falsehoods that have been published about the president’s time in the White House is astounding,’ he writes. ‘I consider this book a small opportunity to correct the record.’
The suit details how the alarm was raised in December 2021, just before publication and that the publisher contacted him with concerns that the book may include ‘misstatements.’
It said it would proceed with publishing the book, but that it was withholding the final $116,666 tranche of his advance as it investigated.
Meadows responded through his son, who is an attorney.
‘Mr. Meadows is aware of the specious allegations that were published regarding a portion of the book which was taken out of context, and which have already been addressed by both Mr. Meadows and former President Trump in multiple press releases,’ Blake Meadows wrote, according to the suit.
Meadows was Trump’s final chief of staff, overseeing his final days in office and the president’s fight to cling to power despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden
Meadows is also a defendant in a case brought by the Fulton County district attorney in Georgia over allegations he tried to overturn the state’s election result
The timing suggests that that exchange was triggered by leaks that the book contained the revelation that Trump tested positive for COVID-19 three days before the first presidential debate last year and that Meadows and other White House staff covered it up so that the face-off could go ahead.
ASP said it went ahead with publication after repeated assurances from Meadows that the contents of the book were true.
But reports that Meadows could be a cooperating witness harmed sales, according to the publisher.
‘As a result, public interest in the book, the truth of which was increasingly in doubt, precipitously declined, and ASP sold only approximately 60,000 of the 200,000 first printing of the Book,’ the suit concludes.
Two weeks ago, ABC News revealed that Meadows had spoken multiple times to members of the special counsel’s team and appeared before a grand jury as part of an immunity deal.
‘Obviously we didn’t win,’ a source quoted Meadows as telling special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
In a statement sent to CNBC on Monday, Meadow’s spokesman said: ‘This is a lawsuit predicated on a publicly disputed, anonymously sourced news story. It should be treated as such.’