The Senate Judiciary Committee put top Trump ally Mark Meadows — and former President Donald Trump himself — on public blast this week for their roles in fostering the events of January 6, when a mob of the then-president’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the formal certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s victory. Meadows has now turned once more to resisting the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, but as the Judiciary Committee laid out, Meadows was right there with Trump in efforts to get the presidential election outcome erased.
NBC's Pete Williams: The D.C. Appeals Court says the Jan. 6 Committee has a valid legislative purpose and that its inquiry concerns a subject that could lead to legislation.
That undercuts a claim made by Mark Meadows and others who've resisted committee subpoenas. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 10, 2021
As the Judiciary Committee explained things:
‘Meadows’ involvement in the events leading to Jan 6 isn’t up for debate. Our investigation found that, without a doubt, he asked Acting [Attorney General Jeffrey] Rosen to initiate baseless election fraud investigations on behalf of Trump—and this “Big Lie” helped incite the insurrection.’
Meadows' involvement in the events leading to Jan 6 isn't up for debate. Our investigation found that, without a doubt, he asked Acting AG Rosen to initiate baseless election fraud investigations on behalf of Trump—and this "Big Lie" helped incite the insurrection.
KEY POINTS ⬇️
— Senate Judiciary Committee (@JudiciaryDems) December 9, 2021
The committee explains that Meadows repeatedly pressured officials at the Justice Department to investigate baseless claims of systematic fraud in the election. Items that Meadows sought to have investigated include “various discredited claims of election fraud in Georgia that the Trump campaign was unsuccessfully pursuing in court,” ‘false claims of “signature match anomalies” in Fulton County, Georgia, even though Republican state elections officials had made clear “there has been no evidence presented of any issues with the signature matching process,”‘ ‘a theory known as “Italygate,” promoted by a Rudy Giuliani ally, which held that the CIA and an Italian IT contractor used military satellites to manipulate voting machines and change Trump votes to Biden votes,’ and more — all of which is, of course, utter nonsense.
(Those proposed lines of inquiry were in the Judiciary Committee’s description.) Check it out below, with more at this link:
The problem is that Congress and the American people need to know the circumstances that led up to the attack on the Capitol complex by Trump supporters in January, and Meadows opted in recent days not to show up for a scheduled appearance in front of the riot investigation committee in the House. Now, members are preparing to hold him in contempt of Congress and refer the matter to the Justice Department for his potential prosecution. The riot investigation committee itself is slated to approve a finding of contempt against Meadows on Monday, after which point the full House would need to approve the finding before referring the matter to the Justice Department, which would be tasked with making the final decision on whether or not to prosecute.
🗓️ Monday, December 13th at 7:00 PM
The Select Committee will vote on a report recommending that the House of Representatives cite Mark Randall Meadows for criminal contempt of Congress and refer him for prosecution.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) December 9, 2021
