Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has told special counsel Jack Smith and his investigators that he could not recall ex-President Donald Trump declassifying sets of classified documents before leaving the White House.

In a move that appears to go against Trump’s primary public defense in the classified documents case, where he has been indicted on a federal level, Meadows has told investigators that he did not remember a single instance where his ex-boss had ordered the classified materials to be declassified or even discussed the same before hauling boxes of them to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after his presidency ended in 2020, ABC News reported.

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After FBI seized of more than 100 classified documents from his Florida home last August, Trump insisted that he declassified the materials before he left office. The former president faces 40 separate criminal charges related to his possession of those documents, which includes unlawful retention of national defense information among others.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all these charges and has denied committing any crimes.

According to ABC News, Meadows reportedly also removed a bit before publishing the prologue to his book, ‘The Chief’s Chief’ which described one of the classified documents being in Trump’s possession when he was “on the couch” at his office in Bedminster, New Jersey, having a meeting with Meadows’ ghostwriter and publicist. The book is about Meadows’ time serving as Trump’s chief of staff for the final months of the Trump’s administration.

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The publication reported that Meadows has acknowledged to investigators that the paragraph in the book was changed upon his request so that it would not later become “problematic” for Trump that such a document had been in his possession. Meadows reportedly also told special counsel investigators that he did not discuss making those edits with Trump.