The US Capitol Riot Panel Acted To Degrade Donald Trump’s Aide Mark Meadows

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Investigators claim Mark Meadows violated any right to deny testimony (File)

Washington:

Lawmakers investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol prepared on Monday to vote on recommending criminal contempt charges against Donald Trump’s former chief of staff for refusing to testify.

Mark Meadows clarified that he had no intention of following a subpoena to appear before the cross-party on Jan. 6 congressional select committee and missed the scheduled deposition for the second time last week.

Members are investigating Trump’s efforts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 presidential election through a campaign that led to deadly chaos in the Capitol – and the help he got from Meadows.

Trump’s fourth and final White House leader told the panel that he would ban testimony until the courts resolve his former boss’s claim of “executive privilege,” which allows presidents to keep some private. particular conversation.

Investigators have undermined Meadows of any right to deny testimony, as the ultra-conservative former congressman is promoting a new memoir that includes detailed accounts of Jan. 6 and his conversations with Trump.

Many of the questions they wanted to ask him were about 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages he returned before he stopped collaborating.

‘Unique location’

“There is no way to support the argument that ‘I cannot go in and testify because that is a privilege but here are all these documents on this subject, which I admit is not a privilege. I cannot go in and testify before Congress, but I can write. about it in my book, ‘”panel member Adam Schiff told MSNBC.

“You can’t have it both ways. And so we will continue and, I believe, hold him in criminal contempt.”

The appellate court last week rejected Trump’s efforts to prevent the committee from accessing documents and testimony from former White House aides, which agreed in a lower court that the defeated former president provided nothing. reason for secrecy. He was given two weeks to appeal.

Meadows was Trump’s most senior aide during the riot and was reported to have been with the then president at the White House as rioters stormed the Capitol.

The committee said he was “uniquely positioned to provide basic information, which included an official White House duty and unofficial duty related to Mr. Trump’s re -election campaign.”

The investigation released a 51-page document on Sunday describing some of Meadows ’communications, including an email on Jan. 5 in which he told an unknown person that the National Guard was on standby to“ protect the pro-Trump. “

‘Unwise, unjust and unfair’

The committee green-lighted the contempt citation Monday night and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday to refer Meadows to the Justice Department.

A timetable for a billing decision has not yet been disclosed. If convicted, Meadows could face six months in prison for each contempt case, but is more likely to be fined.

Accusing the select committee of abusing its powers, Meadows sued nine of its members and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week, asking a federal court to block the execution of subpoenas given to her and Verizon for its phone records.

His attorney George Terwilliger wrote to the panel on Monday to denounce the proposed prosecution as “manifestly unwise, unjust and unfair.”

Thousands of Trump supporters, many associated with ultra-nationalist and white supremacist groups, stormed the Capitol 11 months ago in an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory.

In a fervent speech that day, Trump reiterated the false claims of election fraud he had been making for months and called on supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

The House voted to recommend charges against former White House strategist Steve Bannon in October. He faces trial in July on two counts of contempt.

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)

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