Ex-Trump chief of staff Meadows probed over N. Carolina voter registration

[March 18, 2022]  By Tyler Clifford

(Reuters) -Mark Meadows, who served as former Republican President Donald Trump's chief of staff and has echoed his false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, is being investigated in North Carolina over his voter registration, state authorities said on Thursday.

North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation was assigned to lead the probe after a district attorney referred the matter to the state Department of Justice Special Prosecutions Section, department spokeswoman Nazneen Ahmed said in an email.

The investigation is in response to claims that Meadows, who represented North Carolina in Congress from 2013 until joining the Trump administration in 2020, registered to vote in September 2020 at an address he did not reside at, own or visit, the News & Observer newspaper reported, adding that the State Board of Elections is conducting a joint investigation.

"We have asked the SBI to investigate and at the conclusion of the investigation, we'll review their findings," Ahmed said.
 

The elections board could not be immediately reached for comment.

In North Carolina, voters must live in the county where they are registering and have resided there for at least 30 days prior to the election date, according to the state elections board website.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters following a television interview, outside the White House in Washington, U.S. October 21, 2020. REUTERS/Al Drago

The New Yorker magazine first reported the voter registration allegations earlier this month. The outlet, quoting the director of the Macon County Board of Elections, said Meadows was registered at an address in the county and voted absentee in the 2020 general election.

Meadows is currently registered to vote at the same North Carolina address, according to the state elections board's online database.

Reuters sought comment from Meadows at the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization that helps elect conservatives to office where Meadows now serves as partner, but was unable to immediately reach him.

Meadows is also the subject of contempt charges by a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in which Trump and his supporters sought to stop the certification of now-President Joe Biden's election victory.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by David Gregorio)

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