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Mark Meadows did not appear in person for deposition with January 6 committee

Committee staffers had been ready to go ahead with the interview and waited in a room on Capitol Hill with a stenographer, however began to file out of the room 9 minutes after the deadline handed.

The committee has not commented on whether or not Meadows was a no-show, and his lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark after the scheduled deposition.

Forward of the scheduled deposition Friday morning, Meadows’ lawyer, George J. Terwilliger III, issued a press release saying his shopper wouldn’t cooperate with the committee till courts dominated on former President Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege, noting “a pointy authorized dispute with the committee.”

“The problems concern whether or not Mr. Meadows will be compelled to testify and whether or not, even when he might, that he could possibly be pressured to reply questions that contain privileged communications,” Terwilliger mentioned. “Authorized disputes are appropriately resolved by courts. It will be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges which are on the coronary heart of these authorized points.”

Terwilliger added, “Irrespective of how essential the subject material of the committee’s work, many years of litigation over Government Privilege reveals how critically essential it’s for a president to have entry to recommendation and counsel with out worry that political opponents in Congress will later be capable of draw back the protect of confidentiality that protects candor in these communications.”

The absurd logic of Trump's bid to defy the January 6 committee

By formally setting a deadline that Meadows didn’t meet, the committee took an official step towards probably referring Meadows to the Division of Justice for contempt of Congress.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, scheduled the Friday deposition late Thursday night in an effort to pressure Meadows’ compliance.

“The Choose Committee will view Mr. Meadows’s failure to seem on the deposition, and to supply responsive paperwork or a privilege log indicating the particular foundation for withholding any paperwork you consider are protected by privilege, as willful non-compliance,” Thompson wrote on Thursday forward of the scheduled deposition.

Thompson continued, “Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would pressure the Choose Committee to think about invoking the contempt of Congress procedures … which might lead to a referral from the Home of Representatives to the Division of Justice for felony fees — in addition to the potential for having a civil motion to implement the subpoena introduced in opposition to Mr. Meadows in his private capability.”

Earlier Thursday, White Home Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su wrote to Meadows’ lawyer, informing him of Biden’s resolution and as soon as once more citing “the distinctive and extraordinary circumstances the place Congress is investigating an effort to impede the lawful switch of energy underneath our Structure.”

Su famous to Terwilliger that Biden has already decided that govt privilege doesn’t apply to explicit topics throughout the committee’s purview, together with “occasions throughout the White Home on or about January 6, 2021; makes an attempt to make use of the Division of Justice to advance a false narrative that the 2020 election was tainted by widespread fraud; and different efforts to change election outcomes or impede the switch of energy.”

The Washington Submit first reported Su’s letter.

Meadows was subpoenaed in September, and since then the committee has indicated he is been “partaking” in negotiations over the phrases of his turning over paperwork and showing for a deposition.

It's been a huge week for the January 6 investigation

However weeks after the committee granted Meadows a “quick” however indefinite postponement of the preliminary subpoena deadline, members are rising more and more pissed off and have been considering when and learn how to ramp up the stress.

The committee is setting as much as comply with the same path it pursued with Trump ally Steve Bannon. After making clear from the outset that he had no intention of cooperating with the panel, Bannon now faces attainable prosecution for defying his subpoena.

On Tuesday, the committee additionally subpoenaed two former White Home officers who labored carefully with Meadows in an effort to study extra about his efforts to speak with others related to the probe — together with election officers in Georgia, organizers of January 6 occasions and high-level officers on the Division of Justice.

This story has been up to date with extra developments Friday.

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