State investigators asked to probe Meadows' voter registration

The North Carolina attorney general’s office has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows’ voter registration in North Carolina, an office spokeswoman confirmed Thursday.

The SBI was asked to “investigate alongside the State Board of Elections,” spokeswoman Nazneen Ahmed said in an email.

“At the conclusion of their investigation, we'll review the findings,” Ahmed said.

Ashley Welch, district attorney for Macon County, asked the Special Prosecution Section at the Attorney General’s Office to review the matter, Ahmed said. Meadows, also a former congressman for western North Carolina, is registered to vote in Macon County, at an address where he doesn’t live.

The person who owned the Scaly Mountain home in 2020 told WRAL News that the former congressman “never spent a night down there.”

The New Yorker’s story raised questions of voter fraud, and Meadows has not responded to multiple interview requests on the matter. An attorney representing him in another matter declined comment Thursday to WRAL News. Other attempts to reach Meadows were not successful.

Welch said Meadows contributed to her election campaign in 2014 and appeared in advertisements for her.

"I am requesting the Attorney General's Office handle both the advisement of law enforcement agencies as to any criminal investigations as well as any potential prosecution of Mark Meadows," the letter states.

Welch went on to say that she has historically asked the Attorney General's Office "to handle prosecutions involving alleged misconduct of government officials."

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, whose office investigates some claims of election fraud, said Thursday morning that she and Welch conferred and that the Special Prosecutions Section was asked to “handle a review of the matter.”

Freeman referred all other questions to the attorney general’s Office.