Hugo Lowell in Washington DC
1111L
The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Monday voted to recommend the criminal prosecution for former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, punishing Donald Trump’s most senior aide for refusing to testify about the 6 January insurrection.
The select committee advanced the contempt of Congress report for Meadows unanimously, sending the matter to a vote before the full House of Representatives, which is expected to approve the citation as soon as Tuesday.
Bennie Thompson, the chair of the select committee, said in an opening statement before the panel recommended Meadows’ referral to the justice department that Trump’s former White House chief of staff displayed willful noncompliance in his defiance of his subpoena.
“It comes down to this,” Thompson said. “Mr Meadows started by doing the right thing: cooperating. 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.”
The select committee said in the contempt report they were seeking charges against Meadows after he attempted to obstruct the investigation in myriad ways, from refusing to testify to frustrating their efforts to locate and discover documents relevant to the Capitol attack.
The select committee also said Meadows should be prosecuted since he refused to testify even about information he voluntarily provided to the panel through his own document production and conceded were not covered by claims of executive privilege advanced by Trump.
Over the course of a near-hour-long business meeting, the select committee outlined in detail the materials Meadows had turned over to the panel – and how Meadows then promptly refused to testify about those very records.
Meadows turned over about 9,000 documents as part of a cooperation deal, the select committee said, in his effort to engage with the inquiry to a degree in order to avoid an immediate criminal referral that befell other Trump administration aides who defied subpoenas.
Among the materials Meadows turned over to the select committee was a PowerPoint presentation titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference and Options for 6 JAN”, which recommended Trump declare a national security emergency to unilaterally return himself to office.
He also turned over text messages – read out loud by the select committee’s vice chair, Liz Cheney – that he received as the 6 January riot unfolded, including from Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr, who implored him “we need an Oval Office address” to stop the Capitol attack.
Meadows received more texts, the select committee said, from an unnamed lawmaker, who messaged him the day after the Capitol attack: “Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”
But his cooperation with the select committee ended with the document production and Meadows informed the panel last week that he would not answer questions because he had learned that House investigators had subpoenaed call detail records for his personal phone.
The select committee said Meadows’ refusal to testify constituted noncompliance with his subpoena, which was first issued in September, and initiated proceedings to recommend that the House hold him in contempt of Congress.
The move by the select committee poses damaging consequences for Trump’s most senior aide: if it is approved by the House, the justice department is required to take the matter before a grand jury, which previously indicted Trump strategist Steve Bannon for subpoena defiance.
A successful contempt prosecution could result in up to a year in federal prison, $100,000 in fines, or both – although the misdemeanor charge may not ultimately lead to his cooperation, and pursuing the offense could still take years.
2222L
The select committee targeted Meadows from the outset of the investigation as it sought to uncover the extent of his role in Trump’s scheme to subvert the results of the 2020 election and stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win from taking place on 6 January.
The Guardian previously reported, for instance, that hours before the Capitol attack, Trump made a call from the White House to operatives working from the Willard hotel in Washington DC and pressed them about...
Mark Meadows Background
Mark Randall Meadows is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021. He served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district from 2013 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, Meadows chaired the House Freedom Caucus from 2017 to 2019. He was considered one of President Donald Trump's closest allies in Congress before his appointment as chief of staff.
A Tea Party Republican, Meadows was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. During his time in Congress, he was one of the most conservative Republican lawmakers and played an important part of the United States federal government shutdown of 2013. He also sought to remove John Boehner as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
Meadows resigned from Congress on March 31, 2020, to become White House chief of staff. As chief of staff, he played an influential role in the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He questioned the efficacy of masks, contrary to public health expertise; pressured the Food and Drug Administration to adopt less strict guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine trials; and admonished the White House's own infectious disease experts for not 'staying on message' with Trump's rhetoric. In October 2020, Meadows said it was futile to try 'to control the pandemic', emphasizing instead a plan to contain it with vaccines and therapeutics. As the virus spread among White House staff in the fall of 2020, he reportedly sought to conceal the cases, including his own. After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Meadows participated in his failed effort to overturn the election results and remain in power.
Early life and education Meadows was born at a United States Army hospital in Verdun, France, where his father was serving in the Army and his mother worked as a civilian nurse. His mother was from Sevierville, Tennessee, and his father from Pineville, Arkansas.
Meadows grew up in Brandon, Florida, and described his upbringing as 'poor'. He has said he was a 'fat nerd' who went on a diet after a classmate rejected him for a date. Meadows attended Florida State University for one year in 1977–78. It was reported that Meadows held a Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Florida for many years in his official biography maintained by the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives. In actuality, he graduated from the University of South Florida with an Associate of Arts.
Early career In 1987, Meadows started 'Aunt D's', a small restaurant in Highlands, North Carolina. He later sold it and used the proceeds to start a real estate development company in the Tampa, Florida, area.
While living in Highlands, Meadows served as chairman of the Republican Party in Macon County, and was a delegate to several state and national Republican conventions. Meadows was on North Carolina's Board for Economic Development in Western North Carolina.
In 2011, he moved to Glenville, North Carolina. In 2016, he sold his house and moved into an apartment in Biltmore Park, a mixed-use community in Asheville, North Carolina, while deciding where to buy next in either Henderson or Buncombe counties. He is the owner of Highlands Properties, which specializes in construction and land development. In 2014, Meadows sold 134 acres of land in Dinosaur, Colorado, to a young earth creationist group. He appeared in the film Raising the Allosaur: The True Story of a Rare Dinosaur and the Home Schoolers Who Found It.
In Congress, Meadows had an ultraconservative voting record. He signed the Contract from America, a set of ten policies assembled by the Tea Party movement. Meadows was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.
Meadows voted against disaster relief spending for October 2012's Hurricane Sandy, which struck the Northeastern United States and caused severe damage. He was one of several Republicans who claimed the funding bill contained pork-barrel spending that had nothing to do with hurricane relief, a claim the bill's supporters denied. Meadows's opposition to Sandy relief was recalled in 2017 news accounts after he and many Republicans who had opposed it voted in favor of disaster aid following Hurricane Harvey, which caused massive damage in Louisiana and Texas that August. Critics alleged that Republicans were hypocritically opposing spending in states with Democratic majorities while supporting it in Republican states. Republicans, including Meadows, claimed the situations were different because the Harvey spending bill contained no 'pork'. A Congressional Research Service review determined that the Sandy spending bill's funds were almost all devoted to recovery from Sandy.
Meadows served as chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations up until June 20, 2015, when fellow Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz removed him from the position. A member of the House Republican leadership, Chaffetz removed Meadows due to Meadows's vote against a procedural motion the Republican leadership presented. Meadows was one of 34 Republicans who voted against the motion, which allowed for consideration of President Barack Obama's request for fast-track authority on trade agreements. Speaker John Boehner supported the measure, but many Republicans felt it gave too much power to Democrats and Obama specifically. Chaffetz's action was seen as controversial, with many prominent Republican politicians, including Texas senator Ted Cruz, speaking out against the punishment.
Meadows served as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, until he assumed the office of White House Chief of Staff.
2013 federal government shutdown Meadows has been described as playing an important part of the 2013 United States federal government shutdown. On August 21, 2013, he wrote an open letter to Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor encouraging them to 'affirmatively de-fund the implementation and enforcement of Obamacare in any relevant appropriations bills brought to the House floor in the 113th Congress, including any continuing appropriations bill.' The document was signed by 79 of Meadows's colleagues in the House. Heritage Action, ran critical Internet advertisements in the districts of 100 Republican lawmakers who failed to sign the letter. The letter has been described as controversial within the Republican Party.
The New York Daily News said Meadows put the federal government on the road to shutdown, saying calls to defund Obamacare through spending bills languished until Meadows wrote his letter. Meadows downplayed his influence, saying 'I'm one of 435 members and a very small part of this.' CNN described Meadows as the 'architect of the brink' for his letter suggesting that Obamacare be defunded in any continuing appropriations bill. Meadows said that sensationalized his role.
John Ostendorff of the Asheville Citizen-Times wrote that Meadows 'said it's best to close the government in the short term to win a delay on 'Obamacare', despite the potential negative impact on the economy.' Ostendorff wrote that Meadows said he was doing what Tea Party members in Western North Carolina wanted him to do. Meadows said his constituents wanted him to fight against Obamacare 'regardless of consequences.' Jane Bilello, head of the Asheville Tea Party, said Meadows 'truly represents us' on the issue of Obamacare. Meadows reportedly holds conference calls with members of the Asheville Tea Party, telling them what's going on in Congress and about challenges he faces promoting their agenda.
In public comments, Meadows said he was working on a compromise that involved passing appropriations bills that would fund only parts of the government, such as a bill to fund the National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a bill to fund the National Institutes of Health. But partial or 'mini' funding bills were rejected by the Democratic majority in the United States Senate.
Resolution to remove Speaker Boehner On July 28, 2015, Meadows filed a resolution to vote on removing John Boehner as speaker of the House. If the resolution passed, the House would then vote to elect a new speaker. Because he filed it as a nonprivileged resolution, it was sent to the House Committee on Rules for a vote first, rather than the House floor. The Committee on Rules was considered to have many members who were loyal to Boehner, so the resolution was seen as unlikely to move forward.
Meadows said he filed the resolution because Boehner had 'endeavored to consolidate power, bypassing the majorit'y of Congress; 'through inaction, caused the power of Congress to atrophy,' 'uses the power of the office to punish Members who vote according to their conscience'; 'has intentionally provided for voice votes on consequential and controversial legislation to be taken without notice and with few Members present'; 'uses the legislative calendar to create crises for the American People'; allowed members less than three days to review legislation before voting; and limited meaningful debate on the House floor. The resolution received support from Congressman Walter B. Jones Jr.
Boehner responded, 'Listen, you have a member here and a member there who are off the reservation. No big deal... Listen, this is one member. All right. I've got broad support amongst my colleagues. And frankly, it isn't even deserving of a vote.' On September 25, 2015, Boehner announced his intention to resign as speaker. He officially resigned on October 31, 2015.
Chief of staff behavior
A group of employees reported to Meadows's deputy chief of staff in October 2014 that they were uncomfortable with Meadows's then chief of staff, Kenny West, calling his behavior 'inappropriate towards them'. Meadows asked Representative Trey Gowdy's chief of staff to interview the employees, and Meadows eventually limited or prohibited West's presence in Meadows's offices.
Although West resigned after the employees accused him of inappropriate behavior, he remained on the House payroll in violation of House rules, according to an independent House Ethics Committee investigation. Meadows paid West $58,125 from April 2015 to August 2015 even though he was no longer working in Meadows's office. There is 'substantial reason to believe that Representative Meadows retained an employee who did not perform duties commensurate with the compensation the employee received and certified that the compensation met applicable House standards, in violation of House rules and standards of conduct,' the Office of Congressional Ethics report said.
In November 2018, the House Ethics Committee fined Meadows over $40,000 after concluding he 'did not do enough to address' sexual harassment allegations against West. The committee concluded Meadows took 'immediate and appropriate steps' by separating West from female staffers and requesting an investigation, but noted that West retained his title and 'apparent authority over staff' during this period. 'Representative Meadows could have and should have done more to ensure that his congressional office was free from discrimination or the perception of discrimination,' the committee wrote. The committee fined Meadows $40,625 'for Mr. West's salary that was not commensurate with his work.' The Daily Beast previously reported that a former aide told the committee Meadows and other top staff members in his office were aware of West's behavior before it was publicly reported.
White House chief of staff
Meadows with President Trump on 4 March 2020 In December 2018, Meadows was vocal about his desire to work in the White House as Chief of Staff upon the January 2019 departure of John F. Kelly. Prior to December 2018, Meadows claimed to have received a Bachelor of Arts degree. When questions about his credentials arose during media speculation that he was under consideration to serve as White House chief of staff, Meadows amended his official House biography and other sources to indicate that his degree was an associate, not a bachelor's.
On March 6, 2020, Trump named Meadows the next White House chief of staff, succeeding Acting Chief Mick Mulvaney. Meadows resigned from the House on March 30, 2020, and began his new role the next day.
COVID-19 pandemic
Meadows played an influential role in the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, often questioning the scientific consensus on the effectiveness of face masks in halting the virus's spread. Within the administration, Meadows advised Trump not to openly embrace mask-wearing, saying 'The base will revolt.' He admonished Anthony Fauci, one of the administration's leading experts in guiding the response, for not 'staying on message.' He impressed upon Fauci, Deborah Birx and other government public health experts not to comment on restrictive measures for dealing with the virus. While interacting with reporters, Meadows refused to wear a mask.
In October 2020, when asked about the lack of face mask usage at Trump rallies, Meadows said it was futile to try 'to control the pandemic' and that the focus would be on getting a vaccine. Public health experts, including those in the White House, have pointed to face masks as one of the most basic precautions that have been proven to work to halt the spread of COVID-19.
While chief of staff, Meadows pressured the Food and Drug Administration to adopt less strict guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine trials. He criticized FDA commissioner Stephen M. Hahn as too heavily influenced by the FDA's scientist staff. During coronavirus relief negotiations, Meadows argued against giving additional funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On November 6, 2020, it was reported that Meadows had tested positive for COVID-19; per the Trump administration, he tested positive on November 4. Meadows did not issue a statement after he tested positive and did not make it widely known to administration staff. A small group of people were informed and told to keep it quiet. This caused consternation among other administration staff, as it hindered contact tracing efforts and endangered staff.
Efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election results Main articles: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election and Trump–Raffensperger phone call After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and Trump refused to concede while making false claims of systemic and pervasive fraud, Meadows aided Trump in his efforts to overturn the election and to pressure election officials in Georgia to overturn the results of the election in that state based on Trump's baseless claims of fraud. He urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the certification of Georgia's election results in a 'spirit of cooperation and compromise'. In a taped phone call during which Meadows was present, Trump attempted to pressure Raffensperger into recounting Georgia's votes, claiming he had won the state.
Alongside Trump's son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, Meadows conveyed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Trump administration would pursue all possible avenues in a bid to overturn the election results. Meadows also connected Trump to Mark Martin, a former North Carolina judge who advanced the radical claim that Trump's Vice President, Mike Pence, could refuse to count the electoral votes from states Biden won.
Meadows also repeatedly pressed Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen to have the Justice Department investigate unfounded conspiracy theories claiming fraud, including one that posited that people in Italy used military technology and satellites to tamper with voting machine and turning Trump votes into Biden votes. The claim was one of several outlandish claims circulating online in the days before a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
On September 24, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the 2021 United States Capitol attack subpoenaed Meadows for records and testimony relating to the insurrection, but he failed to show up for a deposition before the committee. Adam Schiff has said the committee is working on issuing a criminal referral for Meadows.
In early December 2021, content was revealed of a PowerPoint presentation on how the election could be overturned that had been provided to Meadows during the days leading up to the January 6 storming of the capital. The presentation recommended that the president declare a national emergency to retain power.
Political positions
Abortion and family planning
Meadows is pro-life and has called abortion a tragedy. He opposes federal funding for abortion and believes parents should be notified of underage abortion procedures. He also opposes requiring churches and other religious sites to provide birth control options.
Birtherism
In 2012, Meadows appeared to flirt with 'birther' conspiracy theories; in June 2012, while running for office, he said at a Tea Party rally that '2012 is the time we are going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is', implying that Obama was not born in the United States. He made a similar comment later that month. When asked about his comment, Meadows said it was 'a non-issue' and 'probably a poor choice of words on my part' and that 'I believe he's an American citizen.'
Russia investigation
Meadows, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been a harsh critic of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. During Trump's presidency, Meadows regularly conferred with Trump about Mueller's probe. Meadows has been described as a 'Trump all'y. In May 2018, Meadows called for a financial audit of the Mueller investigation.
In July 2018, along with Jim Jordan, Meadows called on the Department of Justice to 'review allegations that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to subpoena phone records and documents from a House Intelligence Committee staffer'. An aide termed the deputy AG's threats 'downright chilling'. In their written request, they wrote that in his use of investigative powers, Rosenstein retaliated 'against rank-and-file staff members', therefore abusing his authority. Furthermore, during a Fox News interview by Laura Ingraham that same month, he 'threatened to force a vote on the GOP resolution' that would impeach the deputy AG. Arguing he could force the resolution to the floor as a 'privileged motion', he elaborated: 'we hope it doesn't have to come to that'. He filed articles of impeachment against Rosenstein on July 25, although the measure cannot be 'brought straight to the House floor'. Meadows's Democratic opponent in the 2018 election, Phillip Price, condemned the impeachment resolution as an attempt to shut down the Justice Department's investigation of Russian meddling into the 2016 election through 'obstruction of justice.'
Syria and Yemen
Meadows was among 60 Republicans to oppose condemning Trump's action of withdrawing forces from Syria. Along with Matt Gaetz and a handful of Republicans, Meadows broke with his party and voted to end Saudi assistance to the War in Yemen.
Taxes
Meadows has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, and he opposes a raise in all taxes, including the income tax. Meadows supports a flat-rate income tax for all earners and a repeal of the raise in the capital gains tax. He also supports the elimination of the estate tax.
Trump–Ukraine scandal
Further information: Trump–Ukraine scandal On December 8, 2019, Meadows claimed that Trump never asked a foreign leader to investigate a political rival, despite a transcript of the July 25, 2019, phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky where Trump asks Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and in spite of Trump's October 3, 2019, public calling upon China to investigate Hunter Biden's business activities there while his father was vice president. Meadows said he would be 'OK' with a Democratic president doing what Trump did: “We have Democrat Senators who have done just that.”
Wages
Meadows presented a letter to Trump in 2016 that demanded the repeal of the federal 'prevailing wage' requirement, which requires laborers and mechanics on public works projects to be paid the locally prevailing wages. The rule was initially made to protect traveling black workers in the South from being paid far less than local workers. It evolved into a protection for union workers, ensuring that non-unionized competitors would have to pay the same rate, making it difficult to underbid for work. The letter also demanded the repeal of the overtime rule from the Obama administration, which said people making less than $47,000 a year must be paid extra for overtime hours, compared to the previous requirement that those making over $23,000 a year could be denied overtime pay if the worker's duties could be considered 'managerial'. The letter also demanded the end of regulations requiring federal contractors to be paid for sick leave.