Nothing to See Here, Move Along

In addition to it being a felony,* the fact that Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has been accused of burning some official documents in his office, which constitutes an admission of guilt, or at least guilty intent, which is the requirement for a conspiracy charge.

I don't expect any charges though there should be:

Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers in his office after meeting with a House Republican who was working to challenge the 2020 election, according to testimony the Jan. 6 select committee has heard from one of his former aides.

Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked under Meadows when he was former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, told the panel investigating the Capitol attack that she saw Meadows incinerate documents after a meeting in his office with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.). A person familiar with the testimony described it on condition of anonymity.

The Meadows-Perry meeting came in the weeks after Election Day 2020, as Trump and his allies searched for ways to reverse the election results.

It’s unclear whether Hutchinson told the committee which specific papers were burnt, and if federal records laws required the materials’ preservation. Meadows’ destruction of papers is a key focus for the select committee, and the person familiar with the testimony said investigators pressed Hutchinson for details about the issue for more than 90 minutes during a recent deposition.

………

Before the 2020 election, Perry — who represents the Harrisburg, Pa. region — had a relatively low national profile. But testimony and documents obtained by congressional investigators show he was the first person to connect Trump with Jeffrey Clark, a top Justice Department official who sympathized with the then-president’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.

Senior Trump DOJ officials have testified that the former president came close to appointing Clark as acting attorney general in order to use the department’s extraordinary powers to sow doubt about the election results and urge state legislatures to consider overriding Biden’s victory.

Perry, now chair of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, spent weeks pressing Meadows to implement the plan.

………

The select committee has also revealed that Meadows and Perry took steps to conceal some of their communications after the election. For example, in a Dec. 2020 text message exchange the committee included in an April court filing, Perry told Meadows he had “just sent you something on Signal,” referring to the encrypted messaging app popular with journalists and government officials.

If there is any justice in Washington, DC,‡ there would be a criminal investigation going on at this moment, but with "Meek Merrick" Garland in charge of the DoJ, I would put the chances at slim to none.

^*44 U.S.C. §2201, 18 USC §641, 18 USC §1361, 18 U.S. Code §2071, 18 U.S.C. §793, 18 U.S. Code § 1512, and 18 U.S.C. §1001, but I am an engineer, not a lawyer, dammit.^† (Link)
† I love it when I get to go all Dr. McCoy!
^‡Spoiler, there is no justice in Washington, DC. Ever Since Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon before he was tried, elite impunity has been the norm.