WASHINGTON – A lawyer for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urged the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection not to pursue criminal contempt charges for his defiance of the panel’s subpoena.
The lawyer, George Terwilliger, told the committee Monday that referring the case to the Justice Department would be “contrary to law” because Meadows was acting in good faith to keep communications with former President Donald Trump confidential under executive privilege.
“It would ill-serve the country to rush to judgment on the matter,” Terwilliger said in a letter to the committee.
Meadows initially cooperated with the committee and provided documents, but has since refused to provide contested documents or appear for a deposition.
On Wednesday, he sued House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the committee in U.S. District Court by arguing the subpoena was “overly broad and unduly burdensome.” He also questioned the committee’s legitimacy and argued the committee “threatens to violate longstanding principles of executive privilege and immunity that are of constitutional origin and dimension."
Trump is also fighting a subpoena for his administration's documents at the National Archives and Records Administration. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump and in favor of the committee receiving the documents because President Joe Biden waived executive privilege. But Trump is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The House committee scheduled a vote Monday evening to recommend the full House find Meadows in contempt for defying a subpoena for documents and testimony.
The full House must still vote on the contempt citation and the referral for criminal prosecution. Meadows could become the second Trump administration official prosecuted for contempt, along with political strategist Steve Bannon.
The committee has also recommended contempt and criminal prosecution of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. But a House vote on the measure was postponed because Clark is set to meet with the committee Thursday and refused to answer questions under his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Nearly 300 people have cooperated with the committee. The panel plans weeks of hearings next year on itsfindings about what led to the attack on the Capitol, which injured 140 police officers and temporarily halted the counting of Electoral College votes.
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