The select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has largely succeeded in securing the cooperation of figures in Donald Trump’s orbit. But now, another former administration official appears to be joining Steve Bannon in testing the panel’s authority, underscoring the need for Attorney General Merrick Garland to enforce the committee’s subpoena power.
Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff at the time of the Capitol attack, was due to appear before House investigators on Friday. But, like Bannon before him, he declined to attend the scheduled deposition, with his attorney citing Trump’s claim that “executive privilege” bars him from testifying—a matter currently being fought over in a D.C. court. “Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts,” Meadows attorney, George J. Terwilliger III, said in a statement. “It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.”
In missing his appearance Friday, Meadows faces the threat of contempt charges. The committee has recommended such a prosecution against Bannon after he was a no-show at a scheduled hearing last month, and suggested that it would do the same if Meadows was similarly non-compliant. “Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for Mr. Meadows continued resistance to the Select Committee’s subpoena,” Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to Terwilliger. Refusal to cooperate, Thompson continued, “could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.”
But such a threat only carries weight if the DOJ backs it up, and it hasn’t been clear if Garland intends to do so. He has still yet to indicate either way if he will take up a Bannon prosecution, and could open the door for Trump allies to stonewall the committee if he lets the former Trump aide slide. “Any perception that the rule of law does not apply is a harmful one,” Democrat Adam Schiff, a member of the committee, said last week. The Biden administration did back up congressional investigators in a letter to Meadows’ lawyer, saying Thursday that the president planned to waive claims of executive privilege in matters related to the January 6 riot. But Terwilliger maintained that Meadows is “immune” from efforts to force his testimony.
Trump has repeatedly sought to use executive privilege claims to prevent the release of documents related to January 6, which he has continued to defend in absurd terms. (In an interview with Jonathan Karl for his upcoming book Betrayal, Trump suggested insurrectionists were justified in calling for his vice president to be executed, describing their “hang Mike Pence” chants as a “common sense” response to a “fraudulent vote.”) His legal argument has repeatedly failed in court, though a three-judge appeals panel granted him a temporary injunction to keep the House panel from obtaining January 6 documents for now. The Democratic-appointed judges, however, emphasized that the decision “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits” of Trump’s claims.
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