After leaving his post as chief of staff at the White House in January 2021, Mark Meadows has kept a low profile, rarely popping up in the news cycle. But ever since his former boss, Donald Trump was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith last week on charges that he allegedly tried to upend the 2020 election, Meadows has sunk even further below the radar.

And people are wondering why.

“I’ve said all along I think Mark Meadows is already a cooperating witness,” Chris Christie told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday night. “He has all the looks of a cooperating witness, running into coffee shops away from the press.”

So how much damage could Meadows’ testimony be to Trump, Cooper asked Christie, who, like the former president, is in the running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“It could be the worst testimony for him outside the family members because Mark Meadows was with him constantly during that time.”

“He was a very involved chief of staff, in my experience,” the former New Jersey governor said. “He made sure he was in every meeting and every conversation. And we remember, there are hundreds of text messages he turned over to the special counsel that he kept.”

And Politico notes:

“Meadows is barely mentioned in special counsel JACK SMITH’s 45-page indictment, as WSJ’s Siobhan Hughes notes this morning.”

“So what gives? Could he be cooperating with prosecutors? Could he be indicted next? That’s unclear.”

“Meadows’ sudden low profile is a serious change in dynamic for those of us who’ve covered him since he came to Washington as a baby North Carolina lawmaker. The former Freedom Caucus founder-turned-Trump-ally was always — and we mean ALWAYS — at the center of the action, often by his own design. Now, he’s quietly advising conservatives at the Conservative Partnership Institute, where he makes almost $600,000 a year, Hughes reports.”

This has led Queerty’s Graham Gremore to wonder if Meadows did flip on Trump and is now a cooperating witness against him in the January 6 case, and if Trump was referring to him in his Friday afternoon rant on Truth Social. You know, the one where Trump shouted: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

Smith flagged the threat shortly after, in a late-night court filing. He cited concerns that this could have “a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case” and then requested a protective order be issued to limit the information Trump is allowed to share about the case.

As is typical, Trump’s legal team tried to spin the former president’s meltdown as aw shucks, this is just a boring ol’ political speech made by this dude who’s running for president. However, that defense came to a screeching halt after Trump went on Truth Social the next day, to give special attention to Smith directly, by calling him “deranged,” and accusing him of postponing indicting him until he was “right in the middle” of his primary campaign.

Then he had a few words for Nancy Pelosi, calling her a “sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!” Of course, she already did that when she served as House Speaker during his administration and had to deal with his nonsense.

But then Trump turned his attention to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the trial.

“There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge ‘assigned’ to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case,” he ranted on Truth Social.

And, according to CNN, Chutkan has since beefed up her security detail. A spokesperson for US Marshals Service, which handles security at the DC District Court said, in a statement:

“Ensuring that judges can rule independently and free from harm or intimidation is paramount to the rule of law, and a fundamental mission of the USMS. While we do not discuss our specific security measures, we continuously review the measures in place and take appropriate steps to ensure the integrity of the federal judicial process.”

The Jan. 6 2021 riot at the Capitol has shown us how dangerous some of Trump’s followers can be, it’s understandable that Chutkan, Smith, and others are concerned. Trump continually issues threats, and relatively little is done to stop him, really. And he’ll keep doing this as long as he is, in essence, allowed to do so.

Will there be more riots? I really don’t know, but this is a worrisome time. I also don’t know if Meadows is testifying against Trump but maybe it’s time for him to beef up his security as well.

We’ve already seen that Trump is a dangerous man.

Here’s Christie offering his thoughts to Cooper below.