Former President Donald Trump was quick to doubt and deny reporting his former chief of staff told him plainly that he lost the 2020 election.

The 45th president was in a New York court Tuesday when news broke that Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina representative who served as Trump’s last chief of staff, had apparently met with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s legal team several times in connection with Trump’s election denial.

According to ABC, citing “sources familiar with the matter,” Meadows met with government lawyers three times, once in the presence of a grand jury. Citing the same sources, the news organization claims that Meadows was offered limited immunity in order to reveal potentially incriminating information about Trump’s efforts to see the presidential election overturned.

Meadows apparently told Smith’s team he rebuffed his bosses’ claims of election fraud, and that the former president’s assertion he won the 2020 election was “dishonest.”

Trump responded to the news with disbelief.

“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform, misspelling and capitalization included.

Trump went on to offer a reason as to why Meadows might have worked with Smith.

“When you really think about it, after being hounded like a dog for three years, told you’ll be going to jail for the rest of your life, your money and your family will be forever gone, and we’re not at all interested in exposing those that did the RIGGING — If you say BAD THINGS about that terrible ‘MONSTER,’ DONALD J. TRUMP, we won’t put you in prison, you can keep your family and your wealth,” Trump wrote.

The cooperation of Trump’s former chief of staff would be key to Smith’s prosecution of the former president, who a grand jury has charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct an official proceeding.

Meadows’ lawyer later told another news outlet that reporting on his client’s time with Smith “was largely inaccurate.”

Trump said that Meadows never told him the 2020 election wasn’t rigged against him, a claim the former president has maintained, without providing any evidence, since the day following the election.

“Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless. He certainly didn’t say that in his book,” Trump wrote.

No court has accepted any of the former president’s assertions of election fraud or any made by lawyers representing his claims. Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden after netting 74,223,975 votes to the now-sitting president’s 81,283,501, and following an electoral college defeat of 232 – 306.

President Biden will not participate in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

In a letter to the Granite State’s liberal party leaders, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the 46th president’s campaign manager, said that “while the president wishes to participate in the primary, he is obligated to comply” with the wishes of the national party, which has decided to allow South Carolina to hold the first nominating contest.

“The president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November,” Rodriguez wrote to NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley.

Biden’s decision comes as no surprise to party insiders, who knew for months that a state law requiring New Hampshire to hold the first primaries would stand in the way of the Democratic National Committee’s proposed schedule change.

The DNC warned New Hampshire that if they held their primary first they might face sanctions, and potentially see their delegates rejected at the party’s national convention. New Hampshire Democrats, who are not in control of the state government and cannot change the law, have maintained that their hands are tied and they must hold the nation’s first Democratic primary.

According to Buckley, even if his name isn’t officially listed on the ballot, a write-in campaign could be enough to get the president over the finish line.

“The reality is that Joe Biden will win the New Hampshire First-in-the-Nation Primary in January, win re-nomination in Chicago and will be re-elected next November. New Hampshire voters know and trust Joe Biden, that’s why he is leading Trump in New Hampshire by double digits,” Buckley said in a statement.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, without Biden — and after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared he would run as an independent — the Democratic ticket in New Hampshire features author Marianne Williamson and nine other comparatively unknown candidates. Williamson, who ran for the party nod in 2020, filed her nomination paperwork on October 12.

“The truth of the matter is that even though the DNC can take delegates from me, it cannot take from New Hampshire the significance of this primary,” Williamson said, according to WMUR.

The Republican ticket could feature 20 names. The filing deadline for major party candidates running in the New Hampshire primary is October 27.

Herald wire services contributed.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday that police would step up patrols after a man was arrested on suspicion of breaking into a Jewish family’s home and threatening them.

“The vile act of hate that took place this morning has no place in our City,” Bass said in a strongly worded condemnation. “In the wake of the terror and violence inflicted over the previous weeks, this is one of the worst fears of Jewish families across our country — hatred spilling across the threshold, destroying the sense of safety and sanctuary in a home.”

A woman called 911 before dawn to report a home invasion, saying she was hiding with her four children as a stranger threatened to kill them, FOX 11 reported. The news station showed footage of the suspect in custody, wearing only his underwear, repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine!”

“We were very scared because of the situation in Israel now, and we are Israeli,” the woman’s husband, who said he confronted the intruder, told KCAL News.

No one was physically hurt in the incident, Los Angeles police said. The LAPD said on Wednesday afternoon it did not have any additional information to report on the suspect.

Bass called on officials “to take action to ensure the person responsible for this heinous act is held fully accountable,” in her statement.

“We remain steadfast in support of the Jewish people — the people of Los Angeles will not cower to hate,” she said. “We will respond to it.”

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has left Jewish and Muslim communities increasingly distraught and on edge in the United States. Earlier this month, a Palestinian American boy in Illinois was stabbed to death by his landlord, who targeted him because he was Muslim, officials said.