Mark Meadows, who previously served as former President Trump's chief of staff, is under investigation for alleged voter fraud, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) confirmed to Axios Thursday.
Why it matters: The probe comes after the New Yorker reported that Meadows, also a former U.S. congressman, registered to vote in September 2020 using an address he allegedly never visited.
Details: The former property owner told the magazine she rented the mobile home to Meadow's wife for two months but that she spent only a handful of nights there.
- The unnamed former owner alleges that Meadows himself was never at the residence.
- WRAL News, a local NBC affiliate, later reported that the couple allegedly voted in North Carolina via absentee ballots that year. The outlet was the first to break news of the probe on Thursday.
Driving the news: "We have asked the SBI to investigate and at the conclusion of the investigation, we'll review their findings," Nazneen Ahmed, spokesperson for North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s office, said in a statement to Axios.
Worth noting: The North Carolina voter registration form asks people to list their residential address — "where you physically live."
- The Meadows remain registered to vote from the mobile home address as of Thursday, per the News and Observer.
The big picture: Meadows served as a House representative for North Carolina from 2013 to 2020, when he resigned to join the Trump White House.
- He was one of several Trump allies who repeatedly pressed senior Justice Department officials to investigate baseless conspiracy theories and challenge the 2020 election results.
- In December, the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee.
- Meadows' attorney did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
