The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday submitted the findings of its voter fraud probe into former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who registered to vote in North Carolina and two other states in the past two years.
The state Bureau of Investigation turned over the case file to Attorney General Josh Stein, describing its investigation into Meadows' North Carolina voter registration and listed residence. The bureau also said in a statement that prosecutors will determine whether criminal charges will be brought to Meadows.
Meadows, who previously served as a Republican congressman in North Carolina, was removed from the state's voter rolls in April after Stein requested the bureau investigate his registration records. He listed a mobile home — that he reportedly never stayed at — in Scaly Mountain as his physical address in 2020 weeks before he cast an absentee by-mail ballot. That year, former President Donald Trump won North Carolina, a swing state, by just over one percentage point.
State law dictates that voter registration applications must be accurate and that the listed residency must be "where you physically live." If a voter is found guilty of providing inaccurate information, they may be subject to several months of jail time. Meadows signed the official materials "under penalty of perjury."
A year later, Meadows — who is a strong proponent of Trump's baseless claims that the presidential election was stolen — registered to vote in Alexandria, Virginia, just weeks before the state's crucial gubernatorial election, according to public records. In 2021, Gov. Glenn Youngkin became the first Republican to win statewide office in a dozen years.
Meadows also registered to vote in South Carolina in March 2022 after he purchased a $1.6 million home on Lake Keowee with his wife, Debbie Meadows, according to records from their South Carolina voter registration forms. She also filed three false voter forms in the 2020 election, according to the Washington Post.
The state Bureau of Investigation announced that its voter fraud case against Meadows — which took roughly eight months to complete — was handed over to Stein's office in early November, but declined to provide the file to the press as it is part of an active criminal investigation.
"Prosecutors with the AG's Office will determine whether criminal charges are appropriate, not the SBI," the state investigative bureau said in a statement. "Because the case is now pending a decision by the AG's Office, no additional information is available."
Stein's spokeswoman Nazneen Ahmed, said that their office is still reviewing the case file.
"Our office has received the NCSBI file," Ahmed said in a statement. "Because this is an ongoing matter, we are unable to comment further."
Ironically, Meadows was a strong critic of voting irregularities before and after the 2020 presidential election, promoting the bogus claim that there was widespread voter fraud.
"Do you realize how inaccurate the voter rolls are, with people just moving around?" Meadows asked in August 2020. In his memoir, he also criticized people who cast ballots that are not "an actual resident of the state they were voting in."
