Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was warned of possible violence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to newly released testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the riot.
Trump White House special assistant Cassidy Hutchinson told the panel that “there were concerns brought forward to Mr. Meadows” ahead of the riot, citing “intel reports saying there could potentially be violence on [Jan. 6, 2021]” brought forward by an official.
“I don’t know—I don’t want to speculate whether or not they perceived them as genuine concerns, but I know that people had brought information forward to him that had indicated that there could be violence on the 6th,” Ms. Hutchinson said in her testimony to the panel. “But, again, I’m not sure if he — what he did with that information internally.”
According to Ms. Hutchinson, Mr. Meadows responded to reports by saying, “All right. Let’s talk about it.”
The new details were released by the committee as part of a court filing asking a federal judge to reject Mr. Meadows’ legal challenges to its subpoena compelling the former chief of staff to hand over documents and testify in the probe of the events leading up to and during the Capitol riot.
Mr. Meadows has handed over thousands of text messages to the panel but has twice bucked the panel’s demands to appear after being issued a subpoena in late September. His lawyer, George Terwilliger III, asserted that Mr. Meadows remains “immune” from the committee’s probe, citing former President Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege.
Lawmakers on the panel say Mr. Meadows’ legal challenges are an attempt to obstruct its investigation and asked the judge overseeing the case to reject his “baseless claims.”
“Mr. Meadows is hiding behind broad claims of executive privilege even though much of the information we’re seeking couldn’t possibly be covered by privilege and courts have rejected similar claims because the committee’s interest in getting to the truth is so compelling,” said committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, and Vice-Chair Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican, in a statement released after the filing.
In the filing, the lawmakers say Mr. Meadows’ testimony is vital to uncovering the events that took place. They say that since subpoenaing Mr. Meadows in the fall, “dozens of witnesses who interacted directly with Mr. Meadows, either in the White House or in connection with the Trump campaign to overturn the 2020 election,” have come forward with testimony.
“This information has now allowed the Select Committee to identify with greater precision the subjects upon which it requires information from Mr. Meadows,” the court filing reads.
Given the new information, the committee says it has focused its demands for Mr. Meadows to provide documents and testimony focused on “seven discrete topics that are directly and unambiguously relevant to the events of January 6th and the Select Committee’s investigation,” which the lawmakers say outweighs Mr. Meadow’s claims of executive privilege.
In addition to testimony regarding the non-privileged information that Mr. Meadows has already turned over, the panel is also seeking information regarding the Trump team’s attempts to pressure federal, state and local officials to overturn the election results, Mr. Meadows’ communications with members of Congress in the lead up to the election certification, and information regarding White House activity before, during and after the attack on the Capitol.
In the filing, the committee also unveiled testimony from Ms. Hutchinson that Trump campaign lawyers and Mr. Meadows participated in meetings with several Republican lawmakers in which they discussed challenging the election by sending “votes back to the States or the electors back to the states.”
Ms. Hutchinson also testified “that Mr. Meadows and certain congressmen were advised by White House Counsel that efforts to generate false certificates did not comply with the law,” the committee said.
The House voted in December to recommend that the Justice Department charge Mr. Meadows with criminal contempt of Congress for defying the committee’s subpoena. The Justice Department has yet to formally charge Mr. Meadows.
“It’s essential that the American people fully understand Mr. Meadows’s role in events before, on, and after January 6th,” Mr. Thompson and Ms. Cheney said. “His attempt to use the courts to cover up that information must come to an end.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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