Last week saw former President Donald Trump and 18 others indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

They include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who is expected to plead innocent to charges stemming from the 2020 election. However, an aide to former Vice President Mike Pence says Meadows is anything but. 

Former Pence chief of staff says Meadow was a January 6 "ringleader"

According to The Hill, Marc Short made that assertion during an interview on Tuesday with "CNN Primetime" host Abby Phillip.

Short, who went from serving Pence's chief of staff to heading a political advocacy group for the former president, singled Meadows out as "the ringleader" of January 6.

"Regarding Mark, look, I don’t think any of us relish witnessing what’s happening to any of these people that we worked with," Short told Phillips.

"I think that in your last panel, I think it was it’s fair to say that Mark was the ringleader of much the events that happened around Jan. 6, he was somebody who was — the President sought to find additional attorneys who gave advice different than White House counsel, and it was very central to the events that happen on that day," Short continued.

Short insists Pence did not have "magical authority" regarding election

He then went on to declare that as vice president, Short's old boss lacked the legal authority to halt the counting of votes.

"And I think what’s often missed in the coverage is the weeks leading up that, in which the vice president made it clear that he did not think that there was some magical authority vested upon a vice president of the United States had never been used in 250 years of our republic that allowed him to overturn the election results," Short said.

“So there had been a lot of conversations leading up to this, and Mark was central to pulling together many of those who were, I think, whispering falsehoods into the president’s ear,” he added.

The events following the 2020 election have long been a point of sharp contention between former Vice President Pence and former President Trump.

Trump accuses Pence of having "gone to the Dark Side"

Another example of the ongoing clash between Pence and Trump came earlier this month when Trump accused Pence of having "gone to the Dark Side."

According to Fox News, the allegation came in the form of a post to Truth Social made by the former president on August 5.

"I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was ‘too honest.’ He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy," Fox News quoted Trump as writing.

"I once read a major magazine article on Mike. It said he was not a very good person. I was surprised, but the article was right. Sad!" Trump added.