Former WH chief of staff Mark Meadows will cease cooperation with Jan. 6 committee

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Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will no longer be cooperating with a committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, despite previous efforts to work with them.

Meadows and his attorney George Terwilliger notified the committee Tuesday morning, after the senior Trump administration official could not come to terms with lawmakers on an arrangement to work with them.

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"We have made efforts over many weeks to reach an accommodation with the committee," Terwilliger told Fox News.

Terwilliger said Meadows was looking to appear voluntarily before the committee and answer questions that Meadows believed were not protected by executive privilege.

Meadows is set to appear on "Hannity" Tuesday evening.

"Over the last several weeks, Mr. Meadows has consistently sought in good faith to pursue an accommodation with the Select Committee and up until yesterday we believed that could be obtained," Terwilliger said in a letter to committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. He noted that he and Meadows "consistently communicated" that Meadows could not make "a unilateral decision to waive Executive Privilege claims asserted by the former president."

Over the weekend, however, the committee demonstrated that they indeed planned to look into privileged subject matters, the attorney told Fox News.

Terwilliger pointed to how the committee had issued at least one subpoena to third parties for Meadows' cellphone records, which Meadows intended to turn over voluntarily after screening them for privileged material.

The lawyer for the former chief of staff said Mark Meadows was looking to appear voluntarily before the committee and answer questions that he believed were not protected by executive privilege. (REUTERS/Al Drago/File Picture/File Photo)

Terwilliger also cited a recent comment from Thompson that gave Meadows pause.

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"The chairman of the committee … publicly said that another witness’ claiming of the Fifth Amendment would be tantamount to an admission of guilt," Terwilliger said, adding that this called into question "exactly what is going on with this committee."

Terwilliger cited these same reasons for noncompliance in his letter to the committee. He went on to claim that the committee was pushing the boundaries of its authority through its demands and actions.

"It is well established that Congress’s subpoena authority is limited to the pursuit of a legitimate legislative purpose," he wrote. "Congress has no authority to conduct law enforcement investigations or freestanding 'fact finding' missions."

Meadows would not be the first to refuse compliance with the committee. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon failed to appear and was subsequently indicted for contempt of Congress following a referral from the House. 

Steve Bannon, former adviser to President Donald Trump, and his attorney David Schoen address the media after an appearance at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on contempt of Congress charges on Nov. 15, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

When asked how Meadows might respond to similar treatment, Terwilliger said he and Meadows will "cross that bridge when he come to it," but noted that Meadows "has made every effort to try and accommodate and work with this committee" while maintaining the position on privilege that "he must maintain." The committee, Terwilliger said, had not tried to meet him halfway.

Fox News reached out to Thompson's office for comment but they did not immediately respond.

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Federal prosecutors have not convicted anyone for contempt of Congress since the Watergate era and have not even tried to prosecute such a case since the 1980s. Terwilliger noted that in a recent case, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said that such matters are typically resolved through reaching some sort of accommodation. 

Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., meets with the select committee on the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill, in Washington on July 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The "x-factor" in the current situation, Terwilliger said, is the committee's "wholesale waiver of any notion of executive privilege." He said this position sets a dangerous precedent whereby any president of a different party could expose a past president's communications with senior staff.

When asked why he thinks the DOJ is now taking a more aggressive approach to contempt of Congress, Terwilliger would not posit a guess, stating that he "can't see into the minds of the people in the Justice Department."

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In addition to Bannon, the committee has also approved contempt charges against Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. Prosecutors have not moved to indict Clark at this time, as he has rescheduled an appearance before the committee following a claim that he missed a prior date due to medical reasons.