Mark Meadows Hit With Lawsuit From His Book Publisher Over Election Claims

Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff during Donald Trump's administration, was sued on Friday by the publisher of his 2021 book.

According to the publisher, All Seasons Press, Meadows violated an agreement regarding false statements by including untrue claims in his book about the 2020 presidential election. The publisher is asking to be paid back the $350,000 advance they gave to Meadows, as well as $600,000 in additional compensatory damages for expense and $1 million in reputational damages.

Meadows "promised and represented that 'all statements contained in the Work are true and based on reasonable research for accuracy' and that he 'has not made any misrepresentations to the Publisher about the Work,'" All Seasons Press wrote in its lawsuit.

The legal action follows a recent report from ABC News that alleged Meadows agreed to work with Special Counsel Jack Smith in exchange for immunity. Meadows allegedly warned Trump repeatedly that his claims regarding the rigged 2020 election were baseless. The former president was indicted in August and charged with four counts related to alleged attempts to obstruct the 2020 election. Trump has maintained his innocence in all the cases against him.

Meadows' book, The Chief's Chief, included passages that All Seasons Press alleges contained false claims about the election. One instance singled out by the lawsuit was how Meadows opened a chapter with the line: "I KNEW HE DIDN'T LOSE."

"Meadows' reported statements to the Special Prosecutor and/or his staff and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements in his Book, 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 the help from 'allies in the liberal media,' who ignored 'actual evidence of fraud,'" the publisher said in the filing.

Newsweek contacted an attorney for Meadows via email for comment.

All Seasons Press also alleges sales for The Chief's Chief were affected by the ABC News report about Meadows allegedly striking a deal with Smith.

"As a result, public interest in the book, the truth of which was increasingly in doubt, precipitously declined, and ASP [All Seasons Press] sold only 60,000 of the first 200,000 printing of the book," the company wrote in the suit.

The publisher added that "with the media supplying ever increasingly credible evidence that Meadows lied in the Book in clear breach of the Agreement and the warranties that he made therein," ASP became concerned it could be "vulnerable to accusations of attempting to interfere with the investigation." As a result, ASP "determined that it was ethically obliged and pulled the Book off the market on November 2, 2023."