WASHINGTON (Fwrd Axis) — The House voted late Tuesday night to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee.
The motion passed along party lines with a 222-208 vote. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were the lone two Republicans to join the Democrats in supporting holding Meadows in contempt.
Holding Meadows in contempt comes after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was indicted for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6 Committee last month.
Meadows provided numerous documents to the committee before claiming executive privilege and declining to cooperate any further.
“This isn’t about any sort of privilege or immunity. This is about Mr. Meadows refusing to comply with the subpoena to discuss the records he himself turned over,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Jan. 6 committee’s chairman said Tuesday before the vote.
Cheney said she was “very sad” to see her Republican colleagues defending several of Trump’s aides.
“They are defending the indefensible,” she said.
The news comes after Cheney read out text messages that Meadows received on the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Several Fox News hosts, including Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, texted Meadows to plead with Trump to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
“The president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home … he is destroying his legacy,” Ingraham told Meadows in the text.
Trump’s own son, Don. Jr., wrote: ”He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP.”
Rep. Adam Schiff read out another text from someone in Congress, who is unnamed at this time. The individual said the attempt to stop the election from being certified did not work.
“Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked,” the person said, according to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Meadows’ lawyer, George J. Terwilliger III put out a statement on Tuesday. In that statement, he said his client never stopped cooperating with the committee.
“He has maintained consistently that as a former Chief of Staff he cannot be compelled to appear for questioning and that he, as a witness is not licensed to waive Executive Privilege, claimed by the former president. At the same time, he has fully cooperated as to documents in his possession that are not privileged and has sought various means to provide other information while continuing to honor the former president’s privilege claims,” Terwilliger said.
