Jan. 6 panel details case for holding Meadows in contempt ahead of House vote

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol released a resolution Sunday detailing its recommendation to hold former President Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress, ahead of a House vote on the matter planned for this week. 

In a 51-page document released Sunday, the committee lays out its efforts to obtain documents and testimony from Meadows and notes repeated warnings from its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), of the consequences if he refused to cooperate. 

“Mr. Meadows’s failure to appear for deposition testimony in the face of this clear advisement and warning by the Chairman, and after being given a second chance to cooperate with the Select Committee, constitutes a willful failure to comply with the subpoena,” the committee wrote. 

The House committee told an attorney for Meadows that it was moving forward with contempt charges against the former chief of staff due to his failure to appear before a second scheduled deposition on Wednesday.

“The Select Committee is left with no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr. Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution,” Thompson wrote in a letter to George Terwilliger III, Meadows’s attorney. 

Democratic leaders announced on Thursday that the full House would vote on the contempt measure this coming week. 

Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff on the day of the riot, has accused the select committee of abusing its powers and undermining the executive privilege authority invoked by Trump and several members of his inner circle.

“Even if privileges were applicable to some aspects of Mr. Meadows’s testimony, he was required to appear before the Select Committee for his deposition, answer any questions concerning non-privileged information, and assert any such privilege on a question-by-question basis,” the committee wrote in its resolution.

“After promising to appear, Mr. Meadows has now reversed course and resumed his contemptuous behavior. Mr. Meadows’s conduct in response to the Select Committee’s subpoena constitutes a violation of the contempt of Congress statutory provisions,” it adds. 

The resolution also lists a number of events and communications it wishes to ask Meadows about, including:

• Text messages offering guidance to an organizer of the January 6th rally on the Ellipse.  
• An email saying the National Guard would be present on Jan. 6 to “protect pro Trump people.”
• Communications expressing support for states sending alternate slates of electors to Congress.
• His introduction of Trump to then-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who would play a central role in efforts to overturn the election. 
• Messages to several members of Congress to help connect Trump with state lawmakers about election results.
• Conversations described in his book, “The Chief’s Chief,” with Trump about the 2020 election and Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.