Donald Trump’s former chief aide Mark Meadows was held in contempt of the U.S. Congress

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to take former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as an insult to Congress after he stopped working with the Committee on Jan. 6 investigating the Capitol insurgency.

This is the first time the House has voted to contempt a former member since the 1830s.

The near-party-line 222-208 vote was the second time the special committee sought to punish a witness for contempt of a subpoena.

The vote was the panel’s latest demonstration of force Jan. 6, leaving no angle undiscovered – and no subpoena unanswered – as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.

The legislators on the panel were determined to get answers quickly, and in doing so reaffirmed the congressional authority that had fallen during former President Donald Trump’s tenure.

Two Republican voters – Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who serves on the committee – voted in favor of the resolution. It happened after nine Republicans voted to contempt Trump’s former ally Steve Bannon in October.

Meadows is Trump’s top aide in the White House, giving him more likely grounds to claim executive privilege than Bannon, who hasn’t worked at the White House since 2017.

Bannon never contacted the committee-while Meadows provided documents and talked for two months with the panel about an interview.

Prosecutors in the Justice Department will decide whether to proceed with the case. If convicted, Bannon and Meadows could face up to a year behind bars in each case.

Democrat panel member Jamie Raskin began the debate Tuesday on the resolution by reading furious texts from the day of the attack. Members of Congress, Fox News anchors and even Trump’s son urged Meadows to urge the outgoing president to act quickly to stop the three-hour attacks by his supporters.

“We need an Oval Office address,” Donald Trump Jr. texted, the committee said, as his father’s supporters entered the Capitol, sending lawmakers to run for their lives and interrupting certification of Joe Biden’s presidency win. “He has to lead now. It’s gone too far and out of control.”

Trump Jr. added, “He needs to condemn it—- ASAP.” In response to one of Trump Jr.’s texts, Meadows said: “I push it hard. I agree.”

Committee members said the texts raise fresh questions about what was happening in the White House – and exactly what Trump was doing – while the attack was being carried out.

Many Republicans have defended Meadows, one calling the House action against him “evil”. The former White House chief of staff himself sued the panel, asking the court to overturn two subpoenas he said were “too broad and too burdensome.”

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