The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol Sunday issued a report recommending a contempt of Congress charge against Mark Meadows, chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, for failing to comply with the Committee’s subpoena. The January 6 Committee was created by virtue of House Resolution 503 on June 30, 2021.
Initially, Mr. Meadows cooperated with the Committee by providing more than 9,000 pages of records. However, he failed to appear before the Committee to answer additional questions raised by the information contained in the documents he provided. The report states:
Mr. Meadows’s failure to comply, and this contempt recommendation, are not based on good-faith disagreements over privilege assertions. Rather, Mr. Meadows has failed to comply and warrants contempt findings because he has wholly refused to appear to provide any testimony and refused to answer questions regarding even clearly non-privileged information—information that he himself has identified as non-privileged through his own document production.
According to the report, some of the issues about which the Select Committee seeks information are as follows:
- Mr. Meadows sent an email to a private individual assuring him that the National Guard would be present to protect “pro Trump people” on January 6.
- Mr. Meadows replied to a message regarding apparent efforts to encourage Republican legislators in certain States to send alternate slates of electors to Congress by saying “Yes. We have a team on it.”
- Mr. Meadows was allegedly present during a telephone conversation with Georgia State officials wherein Mr. Trump reiterated that he had won Georgia and informed the Georgia Secretary of State that he wanted to ‘‘find’’ enough votes to ensure his victory.
- Mr. Meadows received an email containing a 38-page PowerPoint presentation with plans to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory.
Pursuant to 2 U.S.C. § 192, the willful refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to 1 year.
