WASHINGTON (CN) — After a tentative deal to comply with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, an attorney for former President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said his client will not cooperate with the panel after breakdowns in negotiations.
Meadows' attorney George Terwilliger said in a letter to the committee obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday that his client would not testify because of the committee's refusal to accept Meadows' assertion that he is exempt from answering some questions due to executive privilege claims by Trump.
Terwilliger also wrote that the committee has subpoenaed a third-party communications provider that would turn over "intensely personal" information, according to the AP report.
This comes after Meadows appeared to reach a deal with the committee last week to partially cooperate with its investigation. Terwilliger released a statement last week saying the committee would not ask Meadows to waive executive privilege in his cooperation.
Mississippi Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack, said Meadows had started to turn over requested documents to the panel after the tentative agreement.
"The Select Committee expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all information requested and that the Select Committee is lawfully entitled to receive. The committee will continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition," Thompson wrote last week.
The reversal by Meadows comes as his upcoming book about his time in the White House, "The Chief's Chief," begins to make headlines, a fact that some experts say may jeopardize his claims of executive privilege.
"I think one of the things we need to look at is all these former Trump administration officials who are writing books and have said things in the public and then are trying to claim some executive privilege. I think that’s going to get them in some trouble," said Todd Belt, political director of the political management program at The Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.
Trump's continued assertions that his communications with White House officials surrounding the insurrection are privileged and cannot be turned over to the committee have served as a roadblock for the panel as it continues to investigate the former president's involvement in the siege on the U.S. Capitol by supporters who believed his lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
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