Posted on Dec 15, 2019 2021 at 7:30
He is the man who could shake Donald Trump. In the parliamentary inquiry into the assault on the Capitol, the testimony of Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to the former president of the United States, could prove to be crucial. But the man categorically refuses to speak out.
A situation which angered elected officials of the American House of Representatives. They spoke out on Tuesday in favor of criminal proceedings against him. By this vote, Mark Meadows is referred to federal prosecutors who will have to decide whether or not to indict him for “attempting to obstruct a congressional investigation”.
The investigation in question: a parliamentary committee that seeks to shed light on the events of January 6, 2021, when thousands of supporters of Donald Trump invaded the seat of the United States Congress in an attempt to prevent elected officials from certifying the victory of Joe Biden for the presidential election.
Thousands of official documents already transmitted
The refusal of Mark Meadows to testify does not constitute a lack of cooperation with the investigation, defends his lawyer, George Terwilliger, listing the thousands of official documents, emails and SMS that he agreed to provide to elected officials of the commission. But rather a way to “access” the wish formulated by Donald Trump to keep certain information secret, in the name of presidential privileges.
Many of these text messages addressed to Mark Meadows were read aloud by the group of parliamentarians in charge of the investigation, during meetings broadcast live on the country’s 24-hour news channels. They come from elected Republicans, figures from the conservative Fox News channel, and even from the president’s own son, Donald Trump Jr., who all implore him to push the Republican billionaire to speak out to push back his supporters, who then took Congress by storm.
One way, for the parliamentary committee, to underline the central role of the former chief of staff in the Trump camp, and the weight that his testimony could bring to the investigation. If he decided to speak.
Tonight, the House voted on a bipartisan basis to hold Mark Meadows, who has key information on the #January6th attack, in contempt of Congress. In doing so, we fulfill our duty to the Constitution and the nation to find the truth of that dark day. pic.twitter.com/KaXBXxoxyM
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 15, 2021
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“We are not here out of mirth,” said Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican elected officials very critical of Donald Trump, who agreed to sit on this commission, on Tuesday. “This is serious business and it is a step which we would not have reached if it was not necessary”, she pleaded before the vote on Tuesday.
Multiplication of legal remedies
Mark Meadows is already the second of the former president’s faithful to be threatened with criminal prosecution as part of this “January 6 investigation”. And little by little, the unrest in Donald Trump’s entourage is making itself felt.
The former real estate mogul is trying by all means to prevent the commission from getting too close and get hold of documents that could incriminate him. It multiplies the legal remedies, so far unsuccessful.
Without waiting for the outcome of these disputes, the commission has already interviewed more than 300 people. The group of elected officials is in fact advancing at a forced march, anxious to publish its conclusions before the mid-term elections of November 2022, during which the Republicans could regain control of the House and bury its work.
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