'Fix this now': Liz Cheney reads MORE texts GOP lawmakers sent to Meadows with Trump's ex-chief of staff now facing claims he violated federal law by not turning over his Gmail and personal cell phone
The House January 6th Committee has told former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows he may have violated federal record keeping laws regarding information on his personal cell phone and on email – as the House prepares to vote to hold him in criminal contempt.
Meadows has emerged as a key figure in the Jan. 6th investigation – with GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming reading into the record Tuesday three more text messages he received from fellow Republican lawmakers the day of the attack pleading with him to intervene with former President Donald Trump.
'It is really bad up here on the Hill,' one wrote him, according to Cheney. 'The president needs to stop this ASAP,' wrote another. 'Fix this now,' wrote a third lawmaker.
The House is set to vote to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in criminal contempt after his failure to provide testimony. A panel report suggests he may have violated federal record keeping laws
Rep. Liz Cheney read into the record new texts that GOP lawmakers sent to Trump on Jan. 6
The lawmakers were urging Meadows to intervene with Trump
'Fix this now,' one lawmaker wrote Meadows
'We know that for 187 minutes, President Trump refused to act,' said Cheney.
She shared those messages, gleaned from a trove of information the committee obtained from Meadows when he was cooperating and perhaps from other sources, after on Monday night reading pleas from Fox News commentators for Trump to make a public statement urging rioters to get out of the Capitol.
In a 51-page report on holding Meadows in contempt for his failure to testify to the panel, the committee says Meadows has 'frustrated' its efforts to 'locate and discover highly relevant documents, even while turning over thousands of other documents.
'Based on Mr. Meadows’s production of documents and recently reported information, it appears that Mr. Meadows may not have complied with legal requirements to retain or archive documents under the Presidential Records Act,' according to the report.
'He has denied the Select Committee the opportunity to question him about these circumstances so that the Select Committee can fully understand the location of highly relevant materials to its investigation and which materials may now be lost to the historical record.'
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) read aloud a series of tweets people sent to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows amid the Capitol riot. Many asked him to get to Trump urging him to take action
Lawmakers debated Meadows' conduct during a House Rules Committee markup Tuesday
A Jan. 6th committee report references Meadows' Gmail and cell phone use
Punchbowl reporter Jake Sherman revealed some of the texts Cheney read aloud were from him
By publicly revealing pleading texts sent to Meadows, Cheney may be signaling that the panel may have found a way to get some of the information anyway. It has previously subpoenaed communications companies.
The report also states that panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, in a letter to Meadows lawyer George Terwilliger III, asked the lawyer to 'identify for the Select Committee the current location of Mr. Meadows’s cell phone and whether Mr. Meadows provided his texts and other relevant cell phone records to the National Archives.'
The push for the information comes as Meadows is citing a claim of executive privilege by former President Donald Trump as a reason for holding back and refusing to appear.
The texts highlighted actions Meadows had with elected officials and private individuals that would not be subject to a privilege claim.
But if the work he performed was official, even if he did it on a personal phone or private email account, federal records laws require him to turn it over to the National Archives – the repository for a trove of other information the panel is seeking to obtain.
Meadows' personal devices have shown up in several areas amid Trump election overturn effort. One involved his and Trump's contacts with state election officials in Georgia, where Trump was claiming election fraud.
'Mr. Meadows used a personal account in his attempts to reach the secretary of state before,' the committee wrote, citing its documents.
The committee, again citing documents on file, says Meadows 'used his personal cell phone to discuss the rally in the days leading up to January 6.'
Another Meadows lawyer, Michael Francisco produced 2,300 text messages from data backed up on Meadows' personal cell, according to the report, while also handing over a 'privilege log' stating Meadows was holding back more than 1,000 additional texts 'from his personal cell phone due to claims claims of executive, marital, and other protective privileges' –an indication he was using the phone for official communications were covered by an executive privilege that a president can assert.
The panel cites Meadows' use of a pair of Gmail accounts as among the topics they would have questioned him about had he appeared.
'We would’ve asked him how and for what purpose he used those Gmail accounts and when he used one of them as opposed to his official White House email account. We would’ve similarly asked him about his use of a personal cellular telephone,' the committee wrote.
Cheney referenced Meadows' texts repeatedly during a hearing Tuesday at the House Rules Committee.
She said he 'appears to have been texting at least one other participant on the call' when Trump phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to push him to 'find' 11,800 votes.
She also pointed to his texts around another area of the inquiry: Trump's potential move to designate DOJ official Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General. Meadows 'was communicating multiple times with a member of Congress, a currently serving colleagues of ours, who was working with Mr. Clark,' she said.
The report itself references 'texts in December of 2020 regarding the prospect of the President’s appointment of Jeffrey Clark as Acting Attorney General.'
Meanwhile, Punchbowl DC reporter Jake Sherman tweeted Tuesday that he had been the author of some of the texts read aloud last night by Cheney. From a secure location in the Capitol amid the riot, Sherman contacted Meadows with his own pleas for assistance.
'We are under siege,' he wrote in one. 'There's an armed standoff at the house chamber door,' he wrote in another. 'We're all helpless.'
Cheney, the select committee's vice chair, read a number of text messages from political and journalistic heavyweights which 'leave no doubt that the White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol.'
'[President Trump] has got to condemn this sh*t ASAP. The Capitol police tweet is not enough,' Don Jr. texted Meadows.
Donald Trump (pictured in the East Room of the White House in July 2020) held a rally at the Capitol which descended into a deadly riot on January 6
Don Jr. and Fox host Laura Ingraham sent desperate messages to Meadows urging him to get a grip of the chaos at the Capitol
Rep. Adam Schiff read a number of lawmaker texts to Mark Meadows in advance of Monday's contempt of Congress vote
Meadows replied to the president's son: 'I'm pushing it hard, I agree.'
'Donald Trump Jr. texted again and again urging action by the president, "We need an Oval Office address. He needs to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,"' Cheney told the committee.
Laura Ingraham messaged: 'Mark, the president needs to tell people in the capitol to go home, this is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.'
'Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished,' Brian Kilmeade wrote to Meadows.
Sean Hannity advised: 'Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the capitol.'
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