Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows missed the Jan. 6 House committee’s Friday morning deadline to appear before the panel, setting up a showdown as lawmakers threaten legal action.
Meadows skipped the scheduled appearance despite a stern warning from committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, who told Meadows’s attorney he would be subjected to contempt of Congress proceedings if he continued to resist.
“The Select Committee will view Mr. Meadows’s failure to appear at the deposition, and to produce responsive documents or a privilege log indicating the specific basis for withholding any documents you believe are protected by privilege, as willful noncompliance,” Thompson warned Meadows’s attorney, George Terwilliger, in a Thursday night letter. “Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would force the Select Committee to consider invoking the contempt of Congress procedures … which could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.”
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE THREATENS TO HOLD MARK MEADOWS IN CONTEMPT
Terwilliger told the Washington Examiner it would be “irresponsible” for Meadows to comply with the subpoena because there is legal issue over what he is allowed to say.
“Our correspondence over the last few weeks shows a sharp legal dispute with the committee,” he said. “The issues concern whether Mr. Meadows can be compelled to testify and whether, even if he could, that he could be forced to answer questions that involve privileged communications. Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts.”
Meadows and others cited former President Donald Trump’s decision to invoke executive privilege in explaining the noncompliance, an argument Thompson rejected.
“The law requires that Mr. Meadows comply with the subpoena absent an applicable immunity or valid assertion of a constitutionally based privilege,” he wrote Thursday. “Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for Mr. Meadows’s continued resistance to the Select Committee’s subpoena.”
NEW: Chairman @BennieGThompson responds to Mark Meadows’s attorney regarding Mr. Meadows’s refusal to comply with a Select Committee subpoena: https://t.co/OtHXdGmgpc pic.twitter.com/sBfHwbKXgY
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) November 11, 2021
The committee subpoenaed Meadows in September. The committee appears interested in any documentation or evidence that Meadows and other Trump allies might have related to the events of Jan. 6. Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff at the time, was present during Trump’s speech at the”Stop the Steal” rally in front of the White House before the Capitol Hill siege.
The former chief of staff is not the first target of the committee not to comply with subpoenas. On Oct. 21, Congress voted to hold former Trump aide Steve Bannon in contempt for his refusal to comply. The committee has also threatened to hold Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, in contempt of Congress.
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As of press time, the committee has not said whether it will pursue contempt charges against Meadows for failing to comply with the subpoena.
The Washington Examiner reached out to representatives from the committee for comment but did not hear back.
