Daily Times

US lawmakers are set to vote Tuesday on a criminal contempt referral against Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows for refusing to testify before the congressional panel investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol.

There is no doubt the citation will be adopted, taking Meadows a step closer to becoming the first White House chief of staff to face prosecution after leaving the post since H.R. Haldeman in the Watergate scandal nearly 50 years ago. Meadows, who was a congressman for seven years before decamping to Trump’s team in 2020, is defying a subpoena to appear before the House select committee conducting the probe, pointing to an “executive privilege” claim by former president Trump.

That defense, which is theoretically only available to sitting presidents seeking to keep sensitive conversations with aides private, has already been shot down by a federal appeals court. And the committee, which voted Monday night to advance the contempt case, says it is seeking answers about text messages and other communications that Meadows has already acknowledged are not privileged. Investigators maintain Meadows has undermined any right to refuse testimony in any case, as the ultra-conservative is promoting a new memoir that includes detailed accounts of January 6 and his conversations with Trump.

He has also spoken numerous times about the attack in primetime appearances on right-wing cable network Fox News. “Whatever legacy he thought he left in the House, this is his legacy now: his former colleagues singling him out for criminal prosecution because he wouldn’t answer questions about what he knows about a brutal attack on our democracy,” panel chairman Bennie Thompson said late Monday. “That’s his legacy.”

The panel is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election through an anti-democratic campaign that led to the deadly Capitol riot — and the help he got from Meadows. During Monday’s hearing the committee’s vice chair Liz Cheney read frantic messages sent to Meadows during the assault from a troika of Fox News hosts as well as the president’s son Donald Trump Jr.

Each begged Meadows — unsuccessfully — to get Trump to call off his supporters and stop the violence. “We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now.