Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff will no longer cooperate with the Congressional committee investigating the Jan.6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in a U-turn that underscores the growing rancor between the former president’s allies and the U.S. legislators.
Bennie Thompson, the Democrat who chairs the Jan.6 select committee, said last month that Mark Meadows had “engaged” the panel of legislators through his attorney, provided records to the committee, and would provide a statement following a subpoena. congressional.
But George Terwilliger, an attorney for Meadows, indicated Tuesday that his client would no longer cooperate, accusing the committee of not operating in “good faith.” In a letter sent to Thompson and obtained by the Financial Times, Terwilliger said the committee “had no intention of respecting the limits related to executive privilege.”
Terwilliger and a spokesperson for the Jan.6 committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Meadows U-turn comes as the former chief of staff has come under fire from Trump loyalists for an upcoming memoir in which Meadows details the then-president’s fight with Covid-19. In the book, Meadows says Trump tested positive for the virus before a televised debate with Joe Biden.
Trump and his allies have sought to invoke “executive privilege,” a legal convention that means certain presidential communications are confidential, as a reason for not cooperating with the Jan.6 committee, which is made up of Democratic lawmakers and just two Republicans: Liz Cheney from Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger from Illinois.
Trump has sued the panel in an effort to block the release of documents related to his final days in office, while Steve Bannon, another Trump confidant, was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in contempt of Congress after failing to comply with a subpoena. of the panel of legislators.
It is unclear whether the Meadows case will follow a similar trajectory. Meadows was a Republican congressman from North Carolina before being appointed as Trump’s fourth and final chief of staff.