Meadows
WASHINGTON The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted Monday to recommend contempt charges against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as lawmakers demand his testimony about then-President Donald Trump’s actions before and during the attack.
“Whatever legacy he thought he left in the House, this is his legacy now,” committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said of Meadows — a Republican former congressman from North Carolina. “His former colleagues singling him out for criminal prosecution because he wouldn’t answer questions about what he knows about a brutal attack on our democracy. That’s his legacy.”
The committee voted 9-0 to move forward with criminal charges against Meadows, who declined to appear for a deposition last week. Lawmakers had planned to ask about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the weeks before the insurrection, including Meadows’ outreach to states and his communications with members of Congress.
The report detailed the questions lawmakers have about the thousands of emails and texts that Meadows had provided to the committee before he ended his cooperation.
The panel has not released all the documents, but the report says they include exchanges about Meadows efforts’ to help Trump overturn his defeat in the presidential election, communications with members of Congress and organizers of a rally held the morning of the insurrection and frantic messages among aides and others as the violent attack unfolded that day.
As part of its list of questions for Meadows, the panel says it wants to know more about whether Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the response of the National Guard, which was delayed for hours as the violence escalated and the rioters beat police guarding the Capitol building.