The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill asked a federal judge Friday to enforce his subpoena from Mark Meadows, uncovering new evidence that the former White House chief of staff had been warned to possible violence before the riots.
Meadows has provided some documents to the committee, including text messages from a wide range of Republicans and even Fox News anchors that have since been made public in other actions taken and subpoenas filed by the committee.
But the latest filing asks the courts to reject the former White House chief of staff’s legal challenges to the panel’s authority, highlighting seven areas of investigation where the committee argues Meadows could provide information despite his claims of executive privilege.
The court filing portrays Meadows as a key figure in former President Trump’s efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. The document establishes that Meadows was involved in these efforts at both the state and national levels, plans with which continued despite receiving intelligence that there might be violence on January 6.
The evidence included in the filing also provides new details about the extent to which Republican lawmakers were involved in former President Trump’s efforts to stay in power.
Those revelations stem from the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant to the president, and Meadows.
“We had intelligence reports that there could be violence on the 6th,” Hutchinson told the panel.
“And Mr. Meadows said, ‘Okay. Let’s talk about it.'”
Hutchinson also featured a wide range of Republican lawmakers who participated in meetings with Trump campaign lawyers along with Meadows.
That group includes Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Rep. Mo Brooks (Ala.) Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Scott Perry (Pa.) Jody Hice (Ga.), Paul Gosar (Ariz. .) and Debbie Lesko (Arizona).
“They felt that he had the authority to, forgive me if my phrase is not correct on this, but to send votes to states or voters to states, more along the lines of Eastman’s theory,” Hutchinson said. , referring to John Eastman, who drafted two memos for the Trump campaign outlining how to challenge the election.
“I don’t recall anyone speaking out and definitely disagreeing with that theory,” he said of lawmakers, adding that “the vice president’s team seemed a little skeptical.”
While Meadows passed on 2,319 of his text messages to the committee, he withheld 1,000.
The committee outlines a number of arguments for rejecting Meadows’ claims of executive privilege, arguing that much of his work went beyond communication with other White House staffers.
In other cases, they say the information you might provide meets the standards that require disclosure when Congress can demonstrate a “profound” and “exceptionally compelling” interest.
The filing also seeks to confront Meadow’s effort to stop Verizon from complying with a separate committee subpoena for the remaining phone records.
“Mr. Meadows participated, as a Trump campaign official, in activities designed to provoke action by state officials and legislatures to change certified election results,” the committee wrote in its filing, pointing to the now-famous Trump call. Trump in which the former president asked the Georgia secretary of state to “seek” more votes.
“Furthermore, Mr. Meadows communicated repeatedly via text message with Congressman Scott Perry regarding a plan to replace the leadership of the Department of Justice in the days leading up to January 6,” it adds.
The committee also says testimony from numerous White House staffers indicates Meadows continued efforts to keep Trump in power despite indications from White House counsel that such plans were illegal.
“The Select Committee now has testimony from other White House staff that Mr. Meadows and certain members of Congress were advised by the White House Counsel that the efforts to generate false certificates were not in compliance with the law,” the committee states.
According to Hutchinson, that issue was raised by White House lawyers in mid-December, and the settlement attorney had warned that the plan was “not legally sound.”
“Certain text communications with members of Congress suggest that Mr. Meadows himself ‘lobbied’ for Vice President Pence to take unilateral action to reject the electoral vote count on January 6,” the committee said in its filing.
The committee’s filing comes well after a vote in December to refer Meadows to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress, a charge the DOJ has yet to act on, despite agreeing to a similar referral for the former US strategist. the White House Steve Bannon.
Although Meadows was scheduled to appear before committee investigators on December 8, he informed them on December 7 that he would no longer be attending, instead filing a lawsuit challenging the subpoena for his testimony.
“Today’s Select Committee filing urges the Court to reject Mark Meadows’ unsubstantiated claims and end his obstruction of our investigation. Mr. Meadows hides behind broad assertions of executive privilege even though much of the information we are seeking could not be covered by privilege and courts have rejected similar assertions because the committee’s interest in getting to the truth is too great. convincing,” committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chairman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a joint statement.
“It is essential that the American people fully understand Mr. Meadows’ role in the events before, during and after January 6. His attempt to use the courts to cover up that information must come to an end.”
Meadow’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Updated on April 23 at 00:54
Reference-thehill.com