Capitol attack panel recommends Mark Meadows for criminal prosecution | US Capitol attack

0
236
Capitol attack panel recommends Mark Meadows for criminal prosecution | US Capitol attack

The House of Representatives special committee investigating Monday’s attack on the Capitol has voted to recommend prosecution of former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and is punishing Donald Trump’s senior associate for refusing to speak out about the insurrection from January 6th to testify.

The select committee unanimously advanced the disregard of the Congressional report for Meadows and sent the matter to a vote before the entire House of Representatives, which is expected to approve the subpoena on Tuesday.

Bennie Thompson, chairman of the special committee, said in an opening statement before the panel recommended Meadows’ referral to the Justice Department that Trump’s former White House chief of staff deliberately disregarded his subpoena.

“It depends,” said Thompson. “Mr. Meadows has started to do the right thing: to cooperate. He handed over files that he did not try to hide behind some apology. But in an investigation like ours, that’s only the first step.

“If the files raise questions – as they sure do – you have to come in and answer those questions. And when it was time for him to obey the law, come in and testify on these questions, he changed his mind and told us to pound the sand. He didn’t even show up. “

The special committee said in the contempt report that they were about to bring charges against Meadows after trying to obstruct the investigation in a variety of ways, from refusing to testify to frustration in their efforts to find and discover documents that were relevant for relevant to the attack on the Capitol.

The special committee also said Meadows should be prosecuted for refusing to testify on his own about information he had voluntarily provided to the panel through his own document production, admitting that it was not through claims to executive privilege asserted by Trump are covered.

Over the course of nearly an hour’s business meeting, the select committee outlined in detail the materials Meadows had given the panel – and how Meadows promptly refused to testify on the exact record.

Meadows has handed over about 9,000 documents under a cooperation agreement, the special committee said in an effort to open the investigation to some extent to avoid an immediate criminal referral meeting other Trump administration officials who opposed subpoenas.

Among the materials Meadows handed over to the select committee was a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference, and Options for Jan 6,” recommending Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to unilaterally return to office .

He also handed over text messages read by the vice chairperson of the Special Committee, Liz Cheney, that he had read in the wake of the riot on the 6th to halt the attack on the Capitol.

Meadows received more texts, the special committee said, from an unnamed legislature who sent him a message the day after the attack on the Capitol: “Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry that nothing worked. “

But his work with the select committee ended with the drafting of the document, and Meadows announced last week that he would not answer questions as he learned that House investigators had summoned call details for his personal phone.

The Special Committee said Meadows’ refusal to testify constituted a failure to comply with his subpoena, which was first issued in September, and is in process to recommend that the House of Representatives convict him in disregard of Congress.

The move by the special committee has devastating consequences for Trump’s highest-ranking advisor: if the House of Representatives approves it, the Justice Department will have to bring the matter before a grand jury that had previously indicted Trump strategist Steve Bannon of subpoena.

A successful disregard charge could result in up to a year in federal prison, a $ 100,000 fine, or both – although the misdemeanor charge may not ultimately lead to his cooperation and the prosecution could take years.

The Special Committee had targeted Meadows from the start of the investigation to expose the extent of his role in Trump’s plan to undermine the 2020 election results and prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden’s January 6 victory.

For example, the Guardian reported that hours before the White House attack on the Capitol, Trump called staff at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC urging them to stop Biden from becoming president.

But House investigators said in a 51-page scorn report for Meadows that they also asked him to answer a number of questions about the 6th Human Uprising. “

The special committee said it wanted to ask after text messages and emails whether state parliaments were sending Trump election lists to Congress – a plan one Congressman said was “very controversial,” to which Meadows replied, “I love it. “

House investigators said in the contempt report they wanted to depose Meadows over texts he sent in December 2020 about the establishment of the Trump Justice Department Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general, as well as texts to organizers of the January 6 rally.

The special committee said it also had questions about why Meadows used a personal cell phone, encrypted signal messaging app, and two personal Gmail accounts for official business – and whether their contents were turned over to the National Archives.

The select committee adviser also noted that it was untenable for Meadows to seek executive privilege protection in order to evade testimony to the panel after writing about potentially privileged talks with Trump in his new book.

“Mr. Meadows has shown his willingness to speak on various media platforms on issues related to the select committee’s investigation – everywhere, apparently, except on the select committee,” the scorn report reads.

During the vote on the contempt, the special committee broadcast screenshots of texts it took on Jan.

The special committee revealed that Meadows wrote in his book: “As he stepped off the stage, President Trump let me know that he was speaking metaphorically about the walk to the Capitol. He knew as well as everyone that we couldn’t organize such a trip at such short notice. “

The attempt to recommend Meadows’ prosecution is the third such instance on the special committee, having approved a disregard of Congressional subpoenas against Bannon in October and then against Clark last month for defying subpoenas.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/13/mark-meadows-capitol-attack-committee-vote-prosecution