Trump’s Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Changes Stance, Is Now Cooperating With Jan. 6 Committee

By Jack Phillips of the Epoch Times

Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows will appear before the Jan. 6 House committee, according to its chairman in a statement on Tuesday.

So far, Meadows has engaged with the committee via his attorney and has “produced records to the committee, and will soon appear for an initial deposition,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement.

Thompson’s panel “expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all information requested and that the Select Committee is lawfully entitled to receive,” the statement read. “The committee will continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition.”

Earlier this month, after he was issued subpoenas, Meadows indicated through his lawyer that he wouldn’t cooperate and described the House investigation as a partisan exercise. About two weeks ago, he declined to attend a hearing before the Jan. 6 committee, prompting the panel to threaten to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Meadows’s lawyer, George Terwilliger, told news outlets on Tuesday that the former White House chief of staff won’t be handing over information subject to executive privilege.

“As we have from the beginning, we continue to work with the Select Committee and its staff to see if we can reach an accommodation that does not require Mr. Meadows to waive Executive Privilege or to forfeit the long-standing position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify before Congress,” Terwilliger’s statement said.

Meadows appreciates the Jan. 6 committee’s “openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged topics,” he said.

Former White House adviser and then-candidate Donald Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon was held in contempt of Congress in October for refusing to cooperate. Bannon in November was indicted on two misdemeanor contempt of Congress charges, which carry penalties of 30 days to 1 year in jail as well as fines, according to the Department of Justice.

Bannon, who currently hosts the “War Room” show, is the first person to be held in contempt of Congress in decades.

Meadows, Bannon, and other former Trump officials have echoed the former president’s argument that information and materials that the Jan. 6 is trying to obtain fall under executive privilege. Earlier this month, Bannon said that the indictment should alarm Americans.

“Not just Trump people and not just conservatives—every progressive, every liberal in this country that likes freedom of speech and liberty should be fighting for this case. That’s why I’m here today: for everybody. I’m never going to back down,” Bannon remarked.

Earlier this month, District of Columbia Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s request for an injunction to prevent the National Archives from providing the House panel with documents.