Mark Meadows, ex-Trump aide, to cooperate with January 6 committee

January 6 committee’s chairman announced on Tuesday that former United States President Donald Trump‘s then-chief of staff Mark Meadows is cooperating with the Capitol insurrection investigation. The announcement is likely to simmer the threat of Meadows being held in contempt.  

Bennie Thompson, the United States Representative leading the investigation, said that the committee will “continue to assess his degree of compliance”, according to reports from Associated Press.

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United States Department of Justice indicted Trump ally Steve Bannon for defying a subpoena from the House of Representatives earlier this year, triggering a sense of fear in others who have received the summons. The legislative house has been negotiating with Meadows for nearly two months.

Thompson, a lawmaker from Mississippi, said in a statement on Tuesday, “The Select Committee expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all information requested and that the Select Committee is lawfully entitled to receive”, according to reports from Associated Press.

Meadows’ lawyer, George Terwilliger, said he was continuing to work with the committee and its staff on a “potential accommodation” that would not require Meadows to waive executive privilege nor “forfeit the long-standing position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify before Congress,” as Trump has argued.

“We appreciate the Select Committee’s openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged topics,” Terwilliger said in a statement on Tuesday.

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The tentative agreement with Meadows highlights the committee’s efforts to balance its need for information about Trump’s role in the violent insurrection with the former president’s assertions — including in an ongoing court case — that Congress cannot obtain information about his private conversations with top aides at the time.

The committee has scheduled a vote for Wednesday to pursue contempt charges against a separate witness, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, after he appeared for a deposition and declined to answer questions.