[BREAKING] January 6th House Select Committee Unanimously Votes to Hold Meadows in Contempt of Congress
We are updating our story below regarding the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attacks on the Capitol; they officially voted to submit Contempt of Congress charges against former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows late Monday afternoon.
Before the televised unanimous vote, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) read previously unreleased texts between Meadows and many of Trump’s closest allies including Donald Trump, Jr. and Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham.
Liz Cheney reads texts from Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, and Donald Trump Jr. urging former President Trump to act while he sat around and did nothing for hours during the insurrection pic.twitter.com/jkk7KhxF0s
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 14, 2021
9-0 vote in favor of holding Meadows in contempt pic.twitter.com/Ohqh9dX9eu
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 14, 2021
The Committee’s referral will now be sent to the Department of Justice.
[This is a developing story, please check back for updates]
Our original article from this morning remains intact, below.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sent an email saying the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro-Trump people’ in the hours leading up to the U.S. Capitol insurrection, according to a new report released by the January 6th House Select Committee on Sunday night.
Meadows had initially cooperated with the Committee but suddenly stopped working with them after handing over the now-infamous 38-page PowerPoint presentation outlining just how planned the insurrection at the Capitol had been.
It was just one of several new incriminating details in the report about Meadows’ actions before and during January 6th, as well as his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The report is a key component for the Committee to send a referral for charges of criminal contempt of Congress to the Justice Department, just as they have for Steve Bannon, who remains free on bond until his trial in July 2022.
"He is the former president. He doesn't have a right to executive privilege over these documents. That resides with the current sitting president who has made the decision that these documents are releasable to the committee."
– Rep. Elaine Luria on Trump and the Jan. 6 documents pic.twitter.com/pr89mTay45— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) December 9, 2021
Mark Meadows has turned over approximately 9,000 pages of records with no claim of privilege. His production of these documents but failure to appear for the deposition is unacceptable. He can't have it both ways. @RepAdamSchiff pic.twitter.com/17xC8erPLH
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) December 11, 2021
The panel was set to meet on Monday to formally advance the report to the full floor House vote as soon as later this week. The vote by the full House is the last step before sending the referral to the DOJ.
BREAKING: THREAD: a new 51-page document issued by the J6 committee reveals some new info about Mark Meadows. First, Meadows spoke with Patel and Chris Miller NONSTOP on 1/6, and knows if and when trump spoke to them about National Guard deployment 1/ pic.twitter.com/vOUoPfP5dX
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) December 13, 2021