Former White House Chief of Staff Meadows granted immunity in Jan 6 case -ABC News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was granted immunity to testify under oath in U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 case over the 2020 presidential election, ABC News reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

ABC News reported Meadows, who served as the final chief of staff for former President Donald Trump, informed Smith's team he repeatedly told Trump following the election the allegations of significant voting fraud were baseless.

Meadows spoke with Smith's investigators at least three times and appeared once before a federal grand jury probing Trump's alleged efforts to hold onto power, according to the report.

A lawyer for Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Smith's office declined to comment.

Smith charged Trump in August with four felony counts for attempting to interfere in the counting of votes and trying to block the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Meadows could be a significant witness for the government at Trump's trial, which is scheduled to begin in March 2024.

Trump is facing potential trouble in another case related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, after a third former lawyer for Trump on Thursday pleaded guilty to helping those efforts.

The Jan. 6 case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump, 77, faces as he seeks to retake the White House. He is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fighting with police and sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives, in a failed bid to overturn Trump's defeat.

Trump continues to make the false claim his loss was the result of fraud.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Tom Hogue and Rod Nickel)