WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Wednesday sued the House committee investigating as the chairman of the panel pledged to move forward with charges now that Meadows is no longer complying with a subpoena.
The dueling actions laid bare simmering tensions between the committee and Meadows, seen by Democratic lawmakers as a pivotal player in their investigation, and reflected a remarkable turnabout from last week, when Meadows had declared his intention of cooperating with the committee on certain areas of their inquiry.
His lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, asks a judge to invalidate two subpoenas that he says are 鈥渙verly broad and unduly burdensome." It accuses the committee of overreaching by issuing a subpoena to Verizon for his cell phone records.
鈥淎llowing an entirely partisan select committee of Congress to subpoena the personal cell phone data of executive officials would work a massive chilling of current and future Executive Branch officials鈥� associational and free speech rights,鈥� the lawsuit states.
The complaint was filed hours after Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, declared he had 鈥渘o choice鈥� but to proceed with contempt charges against Meadows. Meadows did not show up Wednesday for a scheduled deposition after his lawyer, George Terwilliger, told the committee his client was ending his cooperation.
Yet Thompson noted that Meadows has already provided documents to the committee, including personal emails and texts about President Donald Trump's has also , released this week, that discusses .
鈥淭hat he would sell his telling of the facts of that day while denying a congressional committee the opportunity to ask him about the attack on our Capitol marks an historic and aggressive defiance of Congress,鈥� Thompson said in a letter to Terwilliger.
The move to hold Meadows in contempt comes as the committee has struggled to gain compliance from a few of the former president's closest and most high-profile allies. Still, the committee has already conducted with witnesses about the riot.
Committee leaders have said they intend to punish anyone who will not comply, and the House has already after he defied their subpoena. The Justice Department later on two counts.
The documents Meadows has provided, Thompson wrote, include communications from around the time of the presidential election in November 2020 and before the insurrection and involve White House efforts to overturn . Meadows provided the committee last month with personal emails and backed-up data from his personal cellphone, including text messages, Thompson said.
The documents Meadows turned over included an email dated Nov. 7, 2020 鈥� the day Biden was declared the White House winner 鈥� that Thompson described as 鈥渄iscussing the appointment of as part of a 鈥榙irect and collateral attack鈥� after the election." Thompson did not say who sent the email or give further details.
Thompson also described an email that referenced a 38-page PowerPoint presentation titled 鈥淓lection Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN." that Thompson said was intended to be shared on Capitol Hill. Thompson did not further elaborate on the email but said it was dated Jan. 5, 2021, the day before hundreds of and interrupted .
A separate Nov. 6, 2020, text exchange between Meadows and an unidentified member of Congress, Thompson wrote, was 鈥渁pparently about appointing alternate electors in certain states as part of a plan that the member acknowledged would be 鈥榟ighly controversial,' and to which Mr. Meadows apparently said, 鈥業 love it.鈥�"
Also included in the documents, according to Thompson: a Jan. 5, 2021, email about having the National Guard on standby the next day; an 鈥渆arly 2021 text message exchange鈥� between Meadows and an organizer of the rally held the morning of Jan. 6, when Trump told his supporters to ; and 鈥渢ext messages about the need for the former president to issue a public statement that could have stopped the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol."
Terwilliger did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter or confirm the contents of the documents.
Meadows' decision to stop complying with the committee was a reversal after he had initially agreed to the deposition and after Terwilliger said the committee was open to allowing him to decline some questions based on Trump's executive privilege claims. Trump has attempted to hinder much of the committee鈥檚 work, including in by arguing that Congress cannot obtain information about his private White House conversations.
Terwilliger told the committee in a letter this week that a deposition had become 鈥渦ntenable鈥� because the committee 鈥渉as no intention of respecting boundaries鈥� around questions that Trump claims are off-limits. Terwilliger also said he learned over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications provider that he said would include 鈥渋ntensely personal鈥� information about Meadows.
鈥淎s a result of careful and deliberate consideration of these factors, we now must decline the opportunity to appear voluntarily for a deposition,鈥� Terwilliger wrote in the letter.
In his response, Thompson confirmed the subpoenas to a third party but said it 鈥渄oes not impact Mr. Meadows鈥檚 production of documents and text messages, which are the areas we seek to develop during his deposition.鈥�
The committee in August issued a preserve the personal communications of hundreds of people who may have been connected to the attack. But the panel did not ask the companies to turn over the records at that time.
As the investigation has progressed, the committee has 鈥渟ought data that will help answer important questions鈥� but does not include the content of the communications, according to a committee aide who was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. The metadata requested includes dates and times of the communications, which could include both emails and texts.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press
