Mark Meadows Was Going To Cooperate With Jan. 6 Committee, But Had A Change Of Heart

In a reversal, Mark Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger announced on Tuesday via a letter circulated to CNN and others, that while initially, Meadows agreed to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee, he would no longer be doing so.

Meadows’ initial decision to cooperate was a change from the status quo of allies to former President Donald Trump refusing to testify. He was Trump's former Chief of Staff during the end of his presidency.

The letter sent in an email and addressed to Chairperson Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), and Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), read in part, “In short, we now have every indication from information supplied to us last Friday — upon which Mr. Meadows could expect to be questioned — that the Select Committee has no intention of respecting boundaries concerning executive privilege.”

According to the letter, over the weekend, Meadows and Terwilliger learned that the committee issued subpoenas from a third-party communications provider and believe that this disregards the broad breadth of information that would include personal matters, which they believe are of no interest to the investigation.

Firm Trump ally Steve Bannon’s arrest and his criminal case prove that the House committee is pressing for answers. Bannon was indicted on Nov. 12 because he ignored a subpoena issued on Sept. 23.

The letter also refers to Chairperson Thompson’s comments about another witness to appear before the committee. Thompson said that by asserting Fifth Amendment rights, the witness was essentially admitting his guilt, which Meadows and Terwilliger believe to be an unfair assertion to make.

The letter continues “it is well-established that Congress’s subpoena authority is limited to the pursuit of a legitimate legislative purpose . . . Even where there is a legislative purpose, requests that implicate the Separation of Powers by targeting current or former Executive officials must be narrowly tailored . . . the Select Committee has made clear that it does not intend to respect these important constitutional limits.”

Bannon, Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Michael Flynn, Kayleigh McEnany, and Stephen Miller are listed as some of the 45 people and organizations, which include the Proud Boys and Stop the Steal, subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee to testify.