Abbreviated pundit roundup: Contempt charge recommended against Mark Meadows

[Brexiter]

The committee investigating the January 6th insurrection voted unanimously to recommend a criminal contempt charge against Mark Meadows:

Mark Meadows, the last White House chief of staff for President Donald J. Trump, played a far more substantial role in plans to try to overturn the 2020 election than was previously known, and he was involved in failed efforts to get Mr. Trump to order the mob invading the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stand down, investigators for the House committee scrutinizing the attack have learned.

From a trove of about 9,000 documents that Mr. Meadows turned over before halting his cooperation with the inquiry, a clearer picture has emerged about the extent of his involvement in Mr. Trump’s attempts to use the government to invalidate the election results.

At The Washington Post, Greg Sargent compares hat Mark Meadows claimed in his book versus what the committee that is investigating the insurrection:

In a passage that would embarrass a North Korea disinformation specialist, Meadows writes that the mob assault left Trump “mortified.” But, Meadows piously insists, this didn’t distract Trump from focusing only on the welfare of the country in his final days as president, a noble and selfless impulse that “never wavered.”


The House select committee examining Jan. 6 has just released its report recommending contempt charges against Meadows for defying its subpoena. It blows a big hole in Meadows’s pleasing little propaganda piece.

Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger at The Daily Beast:

The use of a personal cellphone and two Gmail accounts means that Meadows, who may soon be held in contempt of Congress and face criminal charges, could also be fighting off accusations that he violated federal records laws.

Committee members want to ask Meadows about his texts with an organizer of the pro-Trump rally at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House that served as a staging area before the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Documents released by the special commission allege that Meadows discussed speakers and the locations of certain individuals. Members also want to question Meadows about text messages he sent to others on the line during the damning Trump Georgia phone call, as well as messages he sent members of Congress “regarding strategy for dealing with criticism of the call,” according to the committee.

Jacqueline Alemany and Theodoric Meyer analyze more of the information that’s been revealed about the role Meadows played on January 6th:

The Justice Department has already indicted Steve Bannon on two contempt charges. If it decides to go that route with Meadows, the legal fight, however, could preclude the committee from getting all the information it's seeking (though until recently, Meadows was cooperating at least some with the committee).


That could be problematic, as lawmakers on the Jan. 6 panel agreed last night that Meadows is at the heart of understanding Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, determining what role the White House played in planning the pre-attack rally and the reasoning behind why the former president did not immediately come out and condemn the attack on the Capitol.

On a final note, Matt Steib at New York magazine dives into the revelation that FOX News hosts communicated frequently with the White House on the day of the insurrection:

Throughout the last administration, Fox News served as an unofficial channel to a president who was pretty much always tuned in, with on-air lobbyists ranging from the family of an accused war criminal to the former prime minister of Israel. But in the midst of the Capitol riot, the effort to contact Trump was even more direct than usual. According to text messages read aloud by Republican Liz Cheney during a Monday night hearing of the House committee investigating the insurrection, several Fox News hosts texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get Donald Trump to act to stop the rioters.