The government watchdog group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has now filed a lawsuit in an attempt to obtain government records related to pressure from ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on the Justice Department. Specifically, Meadows was one of those in the then-president’s circles who tried to cajole the Justice Department into going along with Trump’s lies about the integrity of the election. In one example, Meadows ’emailed then-Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to set up a meeting between the FBI and a man pushing the “Italygate” conspiracy theory, which claimed an Italian defense contractor coordinated with the CIA to use satellites to swing votes from Trump to Biden,’ CREW notes.
Obviously, the “Italygate” conspiracy theory is nonsense, as were other loony claims about the election pushed by certain Trump allies. CREW notes, though, that Meadows’s interaction with Rosen “raises serious concerns and could have violated rules that forbid White House officials from meddling with ongoing DOJ investigations.” CREW has filed its lawsuit against defendants including the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence after a previous Freedom of Information Act request to these agencies for the records in question. The agencies “failed either to respond or turn over responsive records,” CREW says.
CREW summarized the situation as follows:
‘Given that lies about rampant election fraud pushed by top government officials like Meadows helped incite the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the public deserves to know just how deep White House meddling in DOJ investigations about the election went. Accountability for the insurrection means full transparency around the events leading up to it and that includes knowing Meadows’s role in advancing election lies at the highest levels of the government.’
This front is not the only one in efforts to understand Meadows’s own role in the events surrounding the January riot at the Capitol. The House committee investigating that riot has also subpoenaed Meadows, and committee leaders Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said this week that Meadows was “engaging” with the committee. What that “engagement” has entailed was not immediately clear, but Thompson and Cheney presented it as distinct from the stonewalling by former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was also subpoenaed, so there appears to be something there, at least. Meadows was on the job through final weeks of the Trump administration, providing him with a personal perspective on what happened within it.
