Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows will ignore a subpoena from the January 6th committee, his lawyer confirmed today.
Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger said in a statement “Our correspondence over the last few weeks shows a sharp legal dispute with the committee. The issues concern whether Mr. Meadows can be compelled to testify and whether, even if he could , that he could be forced to answer questions that involve privileged communications. Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts. It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.”
“No matter how important the subject matter of the committee’s work, decades of litigation over Executive Privilege shows how critically important it is for a president to have access to advice and counsel without fear that political opponents in Congress will later be able to pull away the shield of confidentiality that protects candor in those communications,” he added.
Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a Thursday letter “The Select Committee will view Mr. Meadows’s failure to appear at the deposition, and to produce responsive documents or a privilege log indicating the specific basis for withholding any documents you believe to be protected by privilege, as willful non-compliance.”
“Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would force the Select Committee to consider invoking the contempt of Congress procedures,” Thompson continued, “which could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges – as well as the possibility of having civil action to enforce the subpoena brought against Mr. Meadows in his personal capacity.”
NEW: CHAIRMAN @BENNIEGTHOMPSON RESPONDS TO MARK MEADOWS’S ATTORNEY REGARDING MR. MEADOWS’S REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH A SELECT COMMITTEE SUBPOENA: HTTPS://T.CO/OTHXDGMGPC PIC.TWITTER.COM/SBFHWBKXGY
— JANUARY 6TH COMMITTEE (@JANUARY6THCMTE) NOVEMBER 11, 2021
