Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is asking the Justice Department to reimburse him for legal fees he incurred in multiple federal and state investigations into President Trump, according to sources with direct knowledge of the request.
The request comes at the same time the Justice Department is also fielding a variety of different requests for payouts from Mr. Trump himself, as well as claims from a number of pardoned Jan. 6 rioters seeking damages for injuries they allege they suffered at the hands of Capitol Police.
Mr. Trump and his two sons sued the IRS earlier this year seeking $10 billion in connection with the leak of his tax returns, and his lawyers have separately sought $230 million from the Justice Department in two administrative claims. In 2024, an Internal Revenue Service contractor, Charles Littlejohn, was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking Mr. Trump’s federal tax records, as well as those of his oldest sons and the Trump Organization, to The New York Times in 2020.
Meadows was a key supporter of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election after his loss to Joe Biden.
He was never charged in connection with special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Mr. Trump over the 2020 election interference case, but he was criminally charged in parallel state cases in Georgia and Arizona.
In November, Mr. Trump pardoned Meadows and others who supported his bid to overturn the election. The state prosecutor in Georgia dropped the charges against Meadows, Mr. Trump and others shortly thereafter.
Meadows still faces legal uncertainty in Arizona, where he was charged for his role in trying to change the outcome of the 2020 election through the use of so-called fake electors.
His actions were also heavily scrutinized by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Mr. Trump’s supporters. As part of that probe, Meadows provided lawmakers with text messages and other records as part of a congressional subpoena.
CBS News could not immediately determine how much money Meadows is seeking or whether the Justice Department intends to honor his request, which was made by his attorney George Terwilliger in early February.
“On a case-by-case basis, the Department of Justice considers requests for private counsel reimbursement from current and former employees who face lawsuits that arise from their actions on behalf of the federal government,” a Justice Department spokesperson said.
“The Department assesses each request according to its regulations and provides reimbursement under established parameters.”
A lawyer for Meadows declined to comment. Meadows did not respond to a request for comment.
Federal regulations give the Justice Department authority in certain cases to provide counsel to current or former government officials, or to reimburse them for the costs of retaining private representation if they are involved in criminal, civil or congressional proceedings in connection with actions they took in the course of their official duties.
The department also has an internal administrative directive which lays out the rates at which it reimburses, which are generally much lower than market rate.
The Justice Department customarily weighs a variety of factors when determining whether to reimburse current or former employees for legal costs.
Historically, most requests are not honored if the employee does not seek reimbursement from the outset, but the department has discretion to make exceptions. Other considerations include whether the person was acting in his or her official duties and whether it is in the interest of the United States.
A variety of previous Office of Legal Counsel opinions have also laid out some of the more specific circumstances under which those employees may be reimbursed.
In one 2020 opinion, the OLC found that government employees who were interviewed as witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election who hired private lawyers were eligible for reimbursement.
“Reimbursing the attorney’s fees of these witnesses therefore would generally be in the interest of the United States, at least for witnesses who were not a subject or a target of the investigation,” the opinion stated.
It was not clear how the Justice Department might apply its regulations and past interpretations of those rules to Meadows.
Meadows is separately seeking reimbursement for legal fees in Georgia, under a state law that allows defendants to make such a request in situations where a prosecutor is disqualified for misconduct, according to court filings.
According to those filings, he paid the law firm Griffin Durham more than $569,000 for representation in that case, and is directly responsible for all unpaid or unbilled additional professional fees totaling a little more than $19,000.
Separately, lawyers from the firm McGuireWoods also billed Meadows nearly $1.3 million, of which Meadows paid nearly $650,000, according to a sworn statement from Terwilliger.
After Terwilliger left the firm and continued representing Meadows on the Georgia case and other related matters, including Smith’s investigations, he charged him a flat fee of $20,000 a month in 2024 and $12,000 a month in 2025, the filing shows.
Meadows also paid a flat fee of $200,000 to Paul Clement, a prominent former DOJ appellate lawyer who represented him when Meadows tried to get his state case moved to federal court.
The court filings did not detail how Meadows funded his defense, though prior reporting by Notus shows that at least some of his bills may have been paid for by Personnel Policy Operations, a nonprofit created by Meadows’ employer, the Conservative Partnership Institute.
In 2024, a progressive group called Accountable.U.S. asked the D.C. Attorney General’s office to investigate whether the arrangement to pay some of his bills violates IRS rules for non-profit organizations.
CBS could not immediately determine the status of that request.
The Justice Department is not expected to consider reimbursing Meadows for fees incurred in the Georgia case until the state makes a determination. Sources said he may then petition the department to pay the balance.
Meadows is one of a number of other defendants in the Georgia case seeking reimbursement for legal fees totaling more than $17 million, according to court filings.
The outcome of those requests remains unclear, since the fee reimbursement law did not go into effect until May 2025, and the case was indicted in 2023.
Lawyers for the county have argued the defendants’ requests violate the Georgia constitution because they are seeking payment retroactively.
The Georgia Court of Appeals is currently weighing whether to accept the case.
While that case plays out publicly in state courts, the Justice Department’s determination on the matter is not likely to be made public.
Unlike internal Justice Department tort settlements which can be obtained through public records requests, decisions on whether to provide counsel or reimburse attorney fees is treated as privileged — even though the cost is borne by taxpayers.
