Alleged “falsehoods” from former President Donald Trump’s one-time chief of staff in his memoir triggered a seven-figure lawsuit from the publisher after pulling the book off shelves.
In December 2021, All Seasons Publishing (ASP) released Mark Meadows’s memoir, “The Chief’s Chief” wherein he documented the tumultuous final year of the Trump administration, navigating COVID and post-election challenges. Friday, a day after pulling the book they said sold on 60,000 of the initial 200,000 printed, the publisher filed suit against the author over an alleged breach of contract.
Filed in Florida’s Sarasota County Court, the Associated Press detailed that ASP is after the $350,000 advance issued to Meadows along with $1 million in costs and damages based on his testimony regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Meadows’ reported statements to the special prosecutor and/or his staff and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements in his book,” the suit alleged, “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 former congressman from North Carolina, a co-defendant in Trump’s federal and Georgia legal battles related to the 2020 election, had reportedly accepted an immunity deal from Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Out of that came reports that Meadows “informed Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump’s prolific rhetoric regarding the election,” ABC News had detailed.
Trump responds after fmr. WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is given immunity to testify against him https://t.co/rOaWN4j3fJ via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 25, 2023
Such testimony stood in stark contrast to a chapter in the memoir, titled “The Long Con” that began “I KNEW HE DIDN’T LOSE,” the suit pointed out and ASP asserted, “If such media reports are accurate, Meadows testified under oath that his book contains known falsehoods.”
Also noted in the suit was the fact that the publisher became aware of concerns about potential “misstatements” just prior to its publication and that they withheld $116,666 of the advance as they investigated.
Meadows’s attorney son, Blake Meadows, had responded, “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.”
The AP noted of the suit, “The All Seasons case is unusual both because it’s based on media reports, not direct knowledge of Meadows’ testimony, and because it’s based on alleged factual errors. Publishers rarely fact check manuscripts, relying instead on the authors to verify what they’ve written, and are far more likely to object to a book because of plagiarism or the author’s personal conduct.”
The reason for the low sales had been attributed to Meadows’s willingness to cooperate as a witness in investigations against Trump after which “public interest in the book, the truth of which was increasingly in doubt, precipitously declined…”
Reacting to the suit, a spokesman for the former chief of staff told CNBC via email, “This is a lawsuit predicated on a publicly disputed, anonymously sourced news story. It should be treated as such.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Trump to do Fox News town hall with all-female audience moderated by Harris Faulkner - October 12, 2024
- In mind-boggling move, DOJ sues battleground state over removal of non-citizens from voter rolls - October 12, 2024
- CBS News CEO’s Dem donations get attention as network engulfed by scandal - October 12, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.