Meadows Sues Pelosi, Jan. 6 Committee Hours After Panel Announces Criminal Contempt Plan

Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, hours after the panel announced plans to push for a criminal contempt of Congress referral against him.

Meadows filed the suit in a federal court in Washington, accusing the committee of issuing “two overly broad and unduly burdensome subpoenas” against him, The New York Times reported. The lawsuit asked a judge to declare that the subpoenas were “unlawful and unenforceable” as “Mr. Meadows faces the harm of both being illegally coerced into violating the Constitution.”

Meadows refused to appear for a scheduled deposition Wednesday, and the committee said earlier in the day that it was looking to vote on a criminal contempt of Congress referral against the former White House chief of staff for his absence in the interview.

The complaint further argued that Meadows initially believed the committee would “act in good faith.” However, the suit said Meadows received a letter dated Dec. 4 wherein telecommunications company Verizon said it would be responding to the committee’s subpoena requesting Meadows’ personal phone records.

The lawsuit said that Meadows’ “communications and deliberations were covered by executive privilege” as a former senior executive official under the Trump administration.

The Jan. 6 committee is yet to announce a date for the said vote, but it is expected that the contempt referral will be approved and then sent to the House, where the referral will likely be passed by lawmakers. Assuming that the referral will pass, it will then pave the way for a recommendation for Meadows’ prosecution by the Justice Department.

Chair and vice-chair of the committee, Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement that Meadows’ “flawed lawsuit won’t succeed at slowing down the Select Committee’s investigation or stopping us from getting the information we’re seeking,” The Hill reported.

Thompson and Cheney added that the committee will discuss the recommendation for Meadows’ prosecution next week.

Meadows, who has already provided thousands of pages of documents to the House select panel, isn’t the only one whose phone records were subpoenaed. Sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN that many of the subpoenaed phone records belong to people who were previously eyed by the Department of Justice for actions related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The panel has also requested communication information of several people within Trump’s inner circle.