(Headline USA) The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol protests has voted to recommend contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as lawmakers revealed a series of texts he received as Antifa activists and other radicals disrupted a peaceful assembly of Trump supporters.
The texts, provided by Meadows before he ceased cooperating with the committee, revealed that members of Congress, Fox News anchors and even President Donald Trump’s own son were urging Meadows to push Trump to act quickly to stop the radicals.
The panel voted 9-0 to recommend the contempt charges. The House is expected to vote to refer the charges to the Justice Department, which will decide whether to prosecute the former Republican congressman.
“We need an Oval address,” Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows during the J6 events. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
Trump Jr. added, “He’s got to condemn this s—- ASAP.”
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Inquisition’s vice chairwoman, detailed the texts obtained by the committee as the panel voted to recommend the contempt charges against Meadows, who did not show up for a deposition last week after his lawyer said he would stop cooperating.
Cheney said the texts show Trump’s “supreme dereliction” as he refused to strongly condemn the violence, and also raise questions about whether he sought to obstruct the congressional certification through inaction.
“These texts leave no doubt,” Cheney said. “The White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”
The vote comes as the Inquisition has already interviewed more than 300 witnesses, and subpoenaed more than 40 people, as it seeks to create the most comprehensive and biased record yet of the lead-up to the J6 events. The committee’s leaders have vowed to punish anyone who doesn’t comply, and the Justice Department has already indicted longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon after he defied his subpoena this fall.
Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger said the contempt vote would be “unjust” because Meadows was one of Trump’s top aides and all presidents should be afforded executive privilege to shield their private conversations. Meadows himself sued the panel, asking a court to invalidate two subpoenas that he says are “overly broad and unduly burdensome.”
Terwilliger noted that the contempt statute has been used infrequently over time and argued that a contempt referral of a senior presidential aide “would do great damage to the institution of the Presidency.”
The committee has gradually teased a handful of the emails and texts Meadows had provided to the committee before he ended his cooperation — including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. The panel has not released any of the communications in full.
On Monday, Cheney read the texts from Trump Jr. and a series of Fox News hosts as those in Trump’s inner circle attempted to reach the president through his chief of staff, imploring him to take action against the violence that was taking place outside and inside the Capitol.
“Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home … this is hurting all of us … he is destroying his legacy,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham texted Meadows, according to the committee.
“Please get him on tv. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” Brian Kilmeade wrote.
In response to one text from Trump Jr., Meadows texted: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Cheney also detailed texts that she said were from members of Congress and others in the Capitol.
“Hey, Mark, protestors are literally storming the Capitol,” read one text. “Breaking windows on doors. Rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?”
Another appeared to come from a member in the House chamber. “There’s an armed standoff at the House Chamber door,” the text read, according to the panel.
If Meadows had appeared for his deposition, lawmakers had planned to ask him about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, including his outreach to states and his communications with members of Congress.
Trump’s former top White House aide “is uniquely situated to provide key information, having straddled an official role in the White House and unofficial role related to Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign,” the panel said in a 51-page report released Sunday evening.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
