Jan. 6 Committee Recommends Contempt Charge for Mark Meadows

WASHINGTON — Mark Meadows, the past White House main of unit for President Donald J. Trump, played a acold much important relation successful plans to effort to overturn the 2020 predetermination than was antecedently known, and helium was progressive successful failed efforts to get Mr. Trump to bid the mob invading the Capitol connected Jan. 6 to basal down, investigators for the House committee scrutinizing the onslaught person learned.

From a trove of astir 9,000 documents that Mr. Meadows turned implicit earlier halting his practice with the inquiry, a clearer representation has emerged astir the grade of his engagement successful Mr. Trump’s attempts to usage the authorities to invalidate the predetermination results.

The committee voted 9 to 0 connected Monday evening to urge that Mr. Meadows beryllium charged with transgression contempt of Congress for defying its subpoena. Before the vote, 1 of the leaders of the sheet work aloud substance messages sent to Mr. Meadows by the president’s lad Donald Trump Jr. and by the Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade urging that Mr. Trump talk retired amid the mob violence.

“He’s got to condemn this crap ASAP,” the younger Mr. Trump texted Mr. Meadows, according to Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the panel, who work the substance messages aloud.

“I’m pushing it hard,” Mr. Meadows responded. “I agree.”

In different message, the younger Mr. Trump implored Mr. Meadows: “We request an Oval address. He has to pb now. It has gone excessively acold and gotten retired of hand.”

Ms. Ingraham sent her ain plea. “Mark, the president needs to archer radical successful the Capitol to spell home,” she wrote to Mr. Meadows, adding, “He is destroying his legacy.”

Ms. Cheney besides quoted panicked substance messages from unnamed radical who were successful the building, including 1 who told Mr. Meadows, “We are nether siege up present astatine the Capitol.”

“These texts permission nary doubt,” Ms. Cheney said. “The White House knew precisely what was happening astatine the Capitol.”

The committee voted to urge that Mr. Meadows beryllium charged with transgression contempt of Congress aft the erstwhile main of unit shifted from partially participating successful the enquiry to waging a full-blown ineligible fight against the committee, successful enactment with Mr. Trump’s directive to stonewall the investigation.

A contempt of Congress complaint carries a punishment of up to a twelvemonth successful jail. The panel’s proposal sends the substance to the afloat House, which could ballot arsenic aboriginal arsenic Tuesday to notation the complaint to the Justice Department.

The committee recovered that Mr. Meadows, a erstwhile congressman from North Carolina who led the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, fundamentally served arsenic Mr. Trump’s right-hand antheral passim assorted steps of the effort to undermine the 2020 election. Mr. Meadows encouraged members of Congress to entity to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, and helium pursued baseless allegations of elector fraud successful respective states, according to the panel.

In addition, Mr. Meadows personally coordinated with rally planners who brought throngs of Mr. Trump’s supporters to Washington connected Jan. 6 to protestation the president’s predetermination loss, and Mr. Meadows said helium would enactment up the National Guard to support them, according to documents helium provided to the panel.

At 1 point, an organizer of the rally turned to Mr. Meadows for help, telling him that things “have gotten brainsick and I desperately request immoderate direction. Please.”

It is not wide however helium responded. The exchanges suggest that Mr. Meadows — who astatine times expressed idiosyncratic skepticism astir the claims of predetermination fraud and theft pushed by Mr. Trump and his allies — catered to Mr. Trump by seeking grounds to enactment the president’s allegations. Mr. Meadows was successful interaction with a wide postulation of obscure characters whose sometimes zany plans and theories made their mode into the White House astatine a captious time.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the president of the committee investigating the Capitol attack, called it “jarring” that Mr. Meadows would halt cooperating with the panel, fixed that helium served successful Congress for much than 7 years.

“It’s not hard to find records of his clip successful the House and find a Mr. Meadows afloat of indignation because, astatine the time, a anterior medication wasn’t cooperating with a legislature probe to his satisfaction,” Mr. Thompson said.

Before the committee’s vote, George J. Terwilliger III, Mr. Meadows’s lawyer, called connected the sheet to alteration course, arguing that it was trampling implicit his client’s law rights and implicit statesmanlike prerogatives. Mr. Terwilliger wrote successful a missive to the committee that Mr. Meadows had made a “good-faith invocation of enforcement privilege and testimonial immunity by a erstwhile elder enforcement official.”

“It would sick service the state to unreserved to judgement connected the matter,” Mr. Terwilliger wrote.

The committee has heard grounds from much than 300 witnesses, and further ones are scheduled to look this week. On 3 occasions, the sheet has moved to clasp allies of Mr. Trump successful transgression contempt for refusing to comply with its subpoenas.

“It comes down to this: Mr. Meadows started by doing the close happening — cooperating,” Mr. Thompson said. “When it was clip for him to travel the law, travel successful and attest connected those questions, helium changed his caput and told america to lb sand. He didn’t adjacent amusement up.”

Before helium stopped cooperating, Mr. Meadows turned implicit documents that helium said were not privileged, but which shed sizeable airy connected his activities successful the aftermath of Mr. Trump’s predetermination defeat.

As supporters of Mr. Trump strategized astir ways to support him successful power, Mr. Meadows encouraged and guided members of Congress connected steps they could instrumentality to effort to overturn the election, the documents show.

Understand the Claim of Executive Privilege successful the Jan. 6. Inquiry

“Yes,” helium wrote successful 1 connection astir appointing a slate of pro-Trump electors and refusing to certify Mr. Biden’s victory. “Have a squad connected it.”

When Mr. Trump needed idiosyncratic to inspect an audit of the ballot counting successful Georgia oregon to promote an probe into the predetermination successful Arizona, helium dispatched Mr. Meadows, who dutifully tried to transportation retired the president’s plans to effort to undermine the election.

Mr. Meadows’s refusal to beryllium for an interrogation with the committee comes arsenic helium is promoting his caller book, “The Chief’s Chief,” connected television. The publication contains details of White House conversations and interactions with the president.

“Mr. Meadows has shown his willingness to speech astir issues related to the prime committee’s probe crossed a assortment of media platforms — anywhere, it seems, but to the prime committee,” the sheet wrote successful a study released connected Sunday night.

The sheet said it besides had questions astir Mr. Meadows’s usage of a idiosyncratic cellphone, a Signal relationship and 2 idiosyncratic Gmail accounts for authorities business, and whether helium had decently turned implicit records from those accounts to the National Archives.

The emails that Mr. Meadows provided to the committee showed that helium discussed encouraging authorities legislators to name slates of pro-Trump electors alternatively of the Biden electors chosen by the voters. They besides amusement that helium encouraged Justice Department investigations of unfounded claims of elector fraud, and that helium promised the National Guard would beryllium contiguous astatine the Capitol connected Jan. 6 to “protect pro-Trump people.”

The committee is besides scrutinizing a 38-page PowerPoint document containing plans to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory. That document, which Mr. Meadows provided to the committee, included a telephone for Mr. Trump to state a nationalist emergency, and it promoted an unsupported assertion that China and Venezuela had obtained power implicit the voting infrastructure successful a bulk of states.

Mr. Meadows’s lawyer has said his lawsuit had thing to bash with the document.

Mr. Meadows could present find himself facing a transgression complaint akin to different of Mr. Trump’s associates, Stephen K. Bannon, who was indicted by a national expansive jury aft the House voted to urge that helium beryllium found successful contempt for refusing to cooperate with the committee. His proceedings is scheduled for adjacent summer.

One by 1 connected Monday, members of the committee assailed Mr. Meadows for refusing to stock what helium knew astir what unfolded connected Jan. 6. They said the substance messages helium provided made it wide that helium could shed airy connected what Mr. Trump was doing and saying astatine captious times that day.

Mr. Hannity was among those who contacted Mr. Meadows, urging the president to talk out.

“Can helium marque a statement?” the tv big wrote to Mr. Meadows connected Jan. 6. “Ask radical to permission the Capitol.”

On Jan. 7, Mr. Meadows received a substance from an unnamed lawmaker who apologized for failing to overturn Mr. Trump’s loss.

“Yesterday was a unspeakable day,” the lawmaker wrote. “We tried everything we could successful our objection to the 6 states. I’m atrocious thing worked.”