Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters outside the White House on October 26, 2020, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky / AP
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Patrick Semansky / AP
Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters outside the White House on October 26, 2020, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Hours before a House selection committee is set to vote on Mark Meadows’ recommendation for contempt of court, Trump’s former White House chief of staff through his attorney said that the effort This is unwise, unfair and against the law.
The comments are part of Six-page letter sent by attorney George Terwilliger to the House panel seats led by Democrat Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and ranked Republican Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Meadows and his attorneys went on to argue that a criminal referral by a top-level adviser to the president who refused to testify before Congress would violate separation of powers principles.
“It is not in the country’s interest to rush to judge on this issue,” Terwilliger said.
Last month, Meadows initially began complying with the committee, flipping through thousands of pages of documents, including emails and text messages, and agreeing to appear for impeachment.
However, he reversed the plan on December 7, the day before the scheduled deposition date. Also last week, Meadows’ book about his time in the White House, Manager, was released, complicating his claim that he was unable to discuss certain conversations with former President Trump. Then Meadows sued the commission in an attempt to prevent enforce the subpoena it has issued.
Central to the disagreement is Meadows’ claim that executive privilege, a legal shield that protects the president’s communications, prevents him from cooperating; Trump directed Meadows following a September 23 subpoena not to share certain documents or conversations due to a request for privilege.
However, President Biden has waived executive privileges in the Meadows case, which supersedes any other statement, the committee argued. Executive privilege is also at the heart of the Trump case, which could be resolved by the Supreme Court.
Meadows flipped about 6,600 pages of records and about 2,000 text messages
Meadows’ latest argument on Monday comes just before an evening meeting of the committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol to vote on a recommendation for contempt of Congress. This is the third such case for the commission, following Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and Former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
late sunday, The committee released a 51-page contempt report along with more than a dozen artifacts documenting their conversations with Meadows since he was one of the first witnesses subpoenaed by the jury.
“Mark Randall Meadows is uniquely positioned to provide critical information about the events of January 6, 2021, as well as efforts by public and private officials to spread the message of fraud. on a large scale in the November 2020 elections and delay or prevent peace, the report said.
The report notes that in the short time Meadows collaborated, he flipped about 6,600 pages of records from his personal email account, plus about 2,000 personal text messages to the committee.
The committee said Meadows declined to provide testimony about the documents and a long list of interests to the panel. Overall, the council said the Meadows missed the three days scheduled for deposition, in October, November and December.
The documents Meadows shared were previewed at the deposition he missed on Dec.
In the memo about Meadows’ missed December 8, a senior committee staff member discusses topics of interest, previewing some of the documents Meadows shared, including an email dated January 5. from Meadows said that the National Guard would “protect Trump supporters” the next day.
Staff said they also wanted to ask Meadows about his texts with members of Congress starting in late 2020, including an exchange involving an unnamed senator regarding the Vice President when That’s Mike Pence. In that case, Meadows discussed Pence’s power to overrule the election results, saying Trump ”thoughts the legislators have the power, but the VP also has the power. ”
The panel said it also wanted to ask Meadows about December 12 text messages with media personalities regarding the negative impact of Trump’s election challenges on the Georgia Senate election. and his prospects for re-election in 2024, and Meadows may have been recruited by an unnamed news channel.
If Meadows does appear, many of his responses to questions on those topics may not have claimed executive privilege, members of the committee argued.
“We are very disappointed that Mr Meadows did not appear as planned, as it deprived the selection committee of the opportunity to develop relevant information about Mr Meadows’ ownership and, more specifically, understand the circumstances of Mr. contours of his request for executive privileges,” the committee’s staff member said in the transcript deposited Dec.
The report also documents other areas of interest to the committee, including Meadows’ trip to Georgia to observe the presidential election results audit; Meadows election fraud complaint goes to the head of the Department of Justice; and text messages encouraging some state Republicans to send groups of electors instead.
The panel also recorded a text from an organizer of the January 6 protest saying that they needed direction because the event had turned “crazy” as well as Meadows’ participation in the 18th meeting. December with Trump and others seeking to challenge the outcome, including seizing voting machines.
