The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into allegations that a former Trump aide who once represented North Carolina in Congress may have committed voter fraud.
Nazneen Ahmed, spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Stein’s office, confirmed the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after the New Yorker magazine first reported that the former congressman, who represented North Carolina’s westernmost district, registered to vote in September 2020 using an address he had never visited.
Ahmed said Stein’s office received a request from Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch that the Department of Justice’s Special Prosecutions Sections assume her role in this matter, and the DOJ agreed.
“We have requested that the SBI investigate alongside the State Board of Elections,” Ahmed said. “At the conclusion of the investigation, we’ll review the findings.”
Allegations of voting misconduct against Meadows came to light after the weekly magazine spoke with the former property owner where Meadows claimed to have lived. She confirmed renting 495 McConnell Rd. in Scaly Mountain to Meadows’ wife, Debbie, for two months, but neighbors told her Mark Meadows never visited the property and his wife only spent a few nights there.
As of Thursday, Meadows’ remained registered to vote at that address.
Meadows represented North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District from 2013 to March 2020, when he stepped down to take his job in the White House.
Meadows has been a proponent of voter fraud conspiracy theories and has helped spread false claims that the 2020 election of President Joe Biden was stolen.
In December, the U.S. House of Representatives found Meadows in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Meadows could not be reached for comment Thursday. No charges have been filed against him.
