WASHINGTON (CN) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection recommended Congress move forward with contempt charges against former President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after he broke a tentative agreement to comply with the panel's subpoena, claiming his former position exempted him from having to testify.
The committee voted Monday night to recommend Congress find Meadows in contempt of Congress, a vote that follows dogged attempts by the panel to get him to turn over documents and speak openly about his involvement with Trump's movement to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters on the Capitol building.
"We do not do this lightly and indeed, we had hoped to not take this step at all," Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, said.
Whether Meadows will be found in contempt of Congress is up to the House, which has to vote in favor of referring Meadows for charges in order for the U.S. attorney's office to consider criminal penalties.
Although Meadows did initially turn over nearly 6,000 pages of emails, texts and documents to the committee after reaching a tenuous agreement to comply with its investigation late last month, Meadow's assertions that executive privilege protected him from being deposed and having to turn over additional documents were the breaking point, with lawmakers demanding further information from the former White House official.
Ahead of the vote Monday, Cheney read out texts between Meadows and Donald Trump Jr. in which the former president's own son pleaded for Meadows to get the former president to step in and hold an Oval Office address as rioters broke into the Capitol, to which Meadows reportedly responded, “I’m pushing it hard, I agree."
Cheney said the documents and texts turned over by Meadows shine a disturbing light on conversations between the former president and his advisors on Jan. 6 and raise further questions about Trump's decision-making that require Meadows' testimony.
"These non-privileged texts are evidence of Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty during those 187 minutes and Mr. Meadows' testimony will bear on another key question before this committee: Did Donald Trump through action or inaction corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress' official proceedings to count electoral votes?" Cheney said.
The Monday night vote also surfaced texts between unnamed lawmakers and Meadows as the attack unfolded, with one member of Congress texting: "Mark, protesters are literally storming the Capitol, breaking windows on doors, rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?" Another anonymous source inside of the building wrote simply: "We are all helpless."
A 51-page report published by the committee ahead of the vote to recommend sanctioning Meadows stressed that the top-level staffer, who was in contact or physically with Trump during much of the day on Jan. 6, refused to testify about documents he turned over, his communications with organizers of Jan. 6 rallies and his communications with the former president.
The report lays out a series of areas of concern that Meadows refused to provide testimony on.
It alleges Meadows wrote in an email prior to the attack that the National Guard would be on the scene to "protect pro Trump people," according to the report — a jarring revelation since the National Guard's delayed response to the violence by Trump supporters has drawn criticism since the attack.
The report also notes Meadows was in contact with at least one organizer of a Jan. 6 rally, who wrote to him on the day of the attack that left five people dead: "[T]hings have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction. Please."