Meadows Agrees to Cooperate in Capitol Attack Investigation

By Luke Broadwater
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Mark Meadows, who was White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, has reached an agreement with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to provide documents and sit for a deposition, the panel said Tuesday, a stunning reversal for a crucial witness in the inquiry.

The change of stance for Meadows, who had previously refused to cooperate with the committee in line with a directive from Trump, came as the panel prepared to seek criminal contempt of Congress charges against a second witness who has stonewalled its subpoenas. It marked a turnabout after weeks of private wrangling between the former chief of staff and the select committee over whether he would participate in the investigation, and to what degree.

“Mr. Meadows has been engaging with the select committee through his attorney,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chair of the panel, said in a statement. “He has produced records to the committee and will soon appear for an initial deposition.”

Thompson indicated that he was withholding judgment about whether Meadows was willing to cooperate sufficiently, adding, “The committee will continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition.”

Meadows’ lawyer, George J. Terwilliger III, also suggested that there were strict limits to his client’s willingness to participate in the inquiry.

“As we have from the beginning, we continue to work with the select committee and its staff to see if we can reach an accommodation that does not require Mr. Meadows to waive executive privilege or to forfeit the long-standing position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify before Congress,” Terwilliger said in a statement. “We appreciate the select committee’s openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged topics.”

CNN earlier reported that Meadows had reached a deal with the panel.

The select committee issued a subpoena for Meadows’ records and testimony in September, citing his involvement in the planning of efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. In Trump’s final weeks in office, Meadows repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories, according to emails provided to Congress, portions of which were reviewed by The New York Times. He was also in communication with organizers of the rally Jan. 6 that preceded the violence, the committee said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.