Mark Meadows, former
White House chief of staff, failed to appear at a deposition before the House committee
probing the January 6 riots at the US Capitol on Friday. Meadows was scheduled
to appear to depose before the committee at 10 am ET but did not arrive,
according to people familiar with the event who spoke to NBC News. Nearly 10
minutes after his scheduled arrival, members of the committee awaiting his
deposition walked out of the room.

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Attorney George
Terwilliger issued a statement on Mark Meadows’ absence saying that the former
chief of staff’s absence showed that he has planned to not cooperate with the
investigation.

“Contrary to
decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that
senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the
first President to make no effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications
from being the subject of compelled testimony,” Terwilliger said in his statement.

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The attorney added
that Mark Meadows remains under the instructions of former President Donald Trump
to “respect longstanding principles of executive privilege.” It now appears the
courts will have to resolve this conflict, he added.

Meanwhile,
Representative Bennie Thomson, D-Miss, wrote a letter on the subject in which
he said that the House panel probing the riots still expects Mark Meadows to
produce “all responsive documents and appear for deposition testimony tomorrow.”

Thomson said
Meadows’ decision to not appear before the panel could force the panel to recommend
contempt of Congress charges as the House did with former Trump aide Steve
Bannon for his refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoena.

“If there are
specific questions during the deposition that you believe raise legitimate
privilege issues, Mr. Meadows should state them at that time on the record for
the Select Committee’s consideration and possible judicial review,” wrote
Thomson.

On Friday, the
House panel probing the Capitol riots was expecting to receive documents
pertaining to President Trump’s actions from the National Archives. However, a
federal court granted Trump’s request to temporarily block the documents from
being handed over.