Mark Meadows Ducks Friday Deposition Amid Contempt Threat From Jan. 6 Committee

Former US President Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, failed to appear for a scheduled deposition before the House select committee investigating the deadly January 6 Capitol attack.

The deposition was scheduled for 10 a.m. E.T. on Friday. However, after ten minutes of waiting, members of the committee, their staff, investigators, and a stenographer left the room, sources have since revealed.

The committee previously provided Meadows and his legal team with eight questions that were pertinent to the investigation and set to be discussed at the deposition.

The committee chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), wrote in a November 11 dated letter that “Mr. Meadows has not produced even a single document in response to the Select Committee’s subpoena.”

On Thursday, Meadows’ attorney suggested that his client would not cooperate with the investigation as the former White House aide invoked executive privilege to deny the congressional investigation of testimony and documents.

His attorney said in a statement, “Mr. Meadows remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege.”

Thompson, in the same letter, asserted that executive privilege does not shield Meadows from cooperating with the investigation, citing case law and US President Joe Biden’s belief “that the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information reflecting an effort to subvert the Constitution itself,...would be at odds with the principles that underlie the privilege.”

Thompson also informed Meadows and his attorneys that “if there are specific questions during that 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.”

Thompson concluded the letter by saying that Meadow’s failure to appear at the deposition is willful non-compliance. The former added, “Such willful noncompliance with the subpoena would force the Select Committee to consider invoking the contempt of Congress procedures in 2 U.S.C. §§ 192, 194—which could result in a referral from the House of Representatives to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.”

A threat of legal action has also been brought against former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon for his refusal to testify and provide documents to the committee.