'This is about Donald Trump': Mark Meadows responds to January 6th cmte vote recommending criminal charges
Jan. 6 committee voted 9-0 to recommend criminal contempt charges for former chief of staff
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows responded late Monday to the House Select Committee's vote to recommend prosecution for criminal contempt of Congress after he refused to testify before the panel.
"It’s disappointing, but not surprising," Meadows told Sean Hannity. "Let’s be clear about this, this is not about me, holding me in contempt. It’s not even about making the Capitol safer. We’ve seen that by the selective leaks that are going on right now. This is about Donald Trump and about actually going after him once again."
MEADOWS ATTORNEY SAYS CONTEMPT CHARGE WOULD BE ‘MANIFESTLY UNJUST’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The seven Democrats and two Republicans investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol voted 9-0 in favor of moving forward with the process of holding Meadows in contempt of Congress which will be followed by a vote in the Rules Committee on Tuesday morning. A vote by the full House on the measure could come the same day.
"There's a very high probability that they will refer me for criminal contempt to DOJ," Meadows said, arguing that the investigation has proven to be political in nature and "is not based on a legislative purpose."
U.S. Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY), co-chairs of the January 6th Select Committee, testify before the House Committee on Rules at the United States Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 2, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who served as the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, was previously cooperating with the committee's investigation into the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He later stopped working with the investigators and is now suing them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I can say that when you look at the criminal component of the intent, there’s never been an intent on my part," Meadows said. "I have tried to share non-privileged information but truly, the executive privilege that Donald Trump has claimed is not mine to waive, it’s not Congress' to waive and that’s why we filed the lawsuit to hopefully get the courts to weigh in – hopefully they will weigh in.
Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote in a 51-page report released Sunday that Meadows was in contact with at least some of the private individuals who planned and organized a Jan. 6 rally, one of whom reportedly may have expressed safety concerns to Meadows about Jan. 6 events.
The report also accused Meadows of using his personal cellphone to discuss the rally in the days leading up to Jan. 6.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mark Meadows as White House chief of staff (REUTERS/Al Drago/File Picture/File Photo)
"They want to talk about the part that fits their narrative," Meadows told Hannity, "and what we do know that in one of the things that is coming out more and more clearly each and every day is that as everyone condemned what happened in terms of the breach of security on the capitol on January 6th."
A Monday letter from Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, argued that referring Meadows for contempt would harm the institution of the presidency by treading on the separation of powers, potentially making future presidential advisers reluctant to offer the president their full and honest advice on key decisions.
The Jan. 6 Committee, however, is aggressively asserting what it claims are its constitutional powers of oversight and investigation. Thompson and Ranking Member Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said last week that Meadows' claims of privilege do not extend to much of what he would discuss with the committee.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meadows is the latest Trump adviser to face the legal ire of the Jan. 6 committee. In November, a federal grand jury charged former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon with two counts of contempt of Congress. The committee also referred former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress.
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"Obviously there is a political narrative that really focuses on Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States and sadly, when we look at what is to be accomplished, I’m not sure that this committee is set up to do that," Meadows said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Asked how he intends to respond to the House vote, Meadows said, "Hopefully the courts will weigh in."
But, he added,"If we look at senior officials, chiefs of staff compelling them to come in and testify and what we are seeing now, there’s lots of jurisprudence and legal opinions and the law that would suggest that that’s not something that should be in the purview of Congress."