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Those texts, as several members of the committee noted, were already turned over to the committee and are not covered by any claim of privilege — which Meadows has continued to assert since reversing his decision to cooperate with the investigation.
The messages serve as evidence of Trump’s “supreme dereliction of duty,” the committee’s vice chairwoman, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said Monday.
Cheney made the motion for the committee to vote for the contempt resolution. The vote in the 9-member committee was unanimous. The contempt resolution is expected to come to the House floor for a vote on Tuesday.
In his opening remarks during Monday’s meeting, the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, took the opportunity to highlight the committee’s progress and paint Meadows, as well as a handful of other Trump allies who continue to defy the panel, as outliers.
“This week, I expect that roughly a dozen key witnesses will provide testimony on the record in our investigation. We’ll hear from many more informally as we continue to gather facts about the violence of January 6th and its causes,” Thompson said. “That should put us well north of the 300 mark in terms of witnesses who have given us information. Add to that more than 30,000 records, and nearly 250 substantive tips on our tip line.”
The committee informed Meadows last week that it had “no choice” but to advance criminal contempt proceedings against him given that he had decided to no longer cooperate with its investigation.
“Mr. Meadows started by doing the right thing — cooperating. He handed over records that he didn’t try to shield behind some excuse,” Thompson said on Monday. “But in an investigation like ours, that’s just a first step. When the records raise questions — as these most certainly do — you have to come in and answer those questions. And when it was time for him to follow the law, come in, and testify on those questions, he changed his mind and told us…
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Source : cnn
