House Jan. 6 committee votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt

(Image credit: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

published 14 December 2021

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot voted on Monday to recommend contempt charges for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Before becoming former President Donald Trump's final chief of staff, Meadows was a lawmaker, representing North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. Meadows did provide the panel with thousands of text messages and emails related to the events of Jan. 6, but stopped cooperating last week after claiming the documents were protected by executive privilege, leading to the contempt vote.

"Mr. Meadows started by doing the right thing — cooperating," committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said on Monday. "He handed over records that he didn't try to shield behind some excuse. But in an investigation like ours, that's just a first step. When the records raise questions — as these most certainly do — you have to come in and answer those questions. And when it was time for him to follow the law, come in, and testify on those questions, he changed his mind and told us to pound sand. He didn't even show up."

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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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