- Alyssa Farah Griffin, an ex-White House official, discussed the Jan. 6 hearings on CNN.
- Griffin said Mark Meadows claimed Donald Trump would remain in power after his 2020 defeat.
- Griffin resigned from her White House role after Trump's defeat.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House communications director, said that she was told by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that Donald Trump would not be leaving office in the wake of his 2020 election defeat.
Griffin in a CNN appearance Tuesday discussed the day's January 6 committee hearing. At the hearing, witnesses described a chaotic December 18, 2020, White House meeting where allies of Trump pressed him to seize voting machines to cling onto power after his election defeat, and pushed wild conspiracy theories.
In the interview, Griffin said she had tried to discover who had let the group, which included Michael Flynn and Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, into the White House.
"Who waived them?" Griffin asked on CNN. "Which is putting them through security to get onto White House grounds. We don't even have that answer now."
She speculated that it had been Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at the time, one of the most ardent backers of Trump's bid to retain power despite his defeat. Meadows' actions have been among the key focuses of the inquiry.
"I suspect it was Mark Meadows and I say that because I can tell you before I resigned, I said 'Sir, I'm planning to move on, I want to put in my notice.' And he said to me, 'What if I could tell you we're actually going to be staying?' You can interpret that as hypothetical, but there were people around the president telling him that, and that's what led to this absolute insanity," Griffin said.
Insider has contacted Meadows' attorney for comment. He has so far resisted a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.
Farah resigned from her position on December 3, 2020, having served in several prominent communications roles for the Trump administration.
More recently, she has criticized Trump's bid to overturn the 2020 election, claiming her MAGA-supporting father boycotted her wedding as a consequence. She has said that Trump acknowledged to her that he had lost to Biden in 2020, and has praised Jan. 6 committee star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, also a former White House official.