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Lawmakers investigating the assault on the US Capitol voted unanimously Monday to pursue criminal contempt charges against Donald Trump’s former chief of staff for refusing to testify.
Mark Meadows has made clear he has no intention of complying with a subpoena to appear before the cross-party January 6 congressional select committee and missed a scheduled deposition for the second time last week.
Members are investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election through an anti-democratic campaign that led to the deadly Capitol riot—and the help he got from Meadows.
Trump’s fourth and final White House chief—a former congressman—told the panel he would withhold testimony until courts resolve his former boss’s claim of “executive privilege,” which allows presidents to keep certain conversations with aides private.
“Whatever legacy he thought he left in the House, this is his legacy now: former colleagues singling him out for criminal prosecution because he wouldn’t answer questions about what he knows about a brutal attack on our democracy,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson said.
“That’s his legacy. But he hasn’t left us any choice. Mr. Meadows put himself in this situation. He must now accept the consequences.”
‘Uniquely situated’
Investigators maintain Meadows has undermined any right to refuse testimony, as the ultra-conservative is promoting a new memoir that includes detailed accounts of January 6 and his conversations with Trump.
He has also spoken numerous times about the attack in primetime appearances on right-wing cable network Fox News.
Many of the questions the committee wants to ask him concern 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages that he turned over before he stopped cooperating, without…
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Source : france24
