Exclusive: Meadows reaches initial cooperation agreement with investigators on January 6
“Mr Meadows has engaged with the Selection Committee through his attorney,” Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chaired the committee, said in a statement. “He has provided records to the committee and will soon appear for initial revocation. The selection committee expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all requested information and The committee chooses to be legally entitled to receive it. The committee will continue to assess his compliance with our subpoena after dismissing it.”
Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a statement to CNN that there was now an understanding between the two sides about how information might be exchanged in the future, saying his client and the committee were willing to engage. engage in certain topics as they work. figuring out how to deal with the information the committee is seeking may be of executive privilege.
“As we have done since the beginning, we continue to work with the Selection Committee and its staff to see if we can secure a seat without requiring Mr. Meadows to give up Executive Privilege or giving up a long position that senior White House officials do not. “We appreciate the openness of the Selection Committee in receiving voluntary feedback on non-privileged topics.”
“It’s not wrong to say that he has cooperated to some extent, but he has yet to fulfill his duty and we need to see what happens. But Meadows doesn’t want to be looked down upon,” one said. Sources familiar with the process told CNN.
“It’s fair to say he’s not Bannon, and he’s not Clark … and he doesn’t want to be,” the source said. “But how much he is cooperating, and how much he will cooperate is still an open question. He has done some work … but he has not fulfilled all his obligations. … and it’s still not entirely clear how much he’ll cooperate. . “
The source added: “We can tell the difference between someone stomping on the spot or faking it, we don’t think that’s what’s going on here.
Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar, who serves on the panel, told CNN earlier this month that Meadows may have “small claims” for executive privileges in some conversations but stressed the committee had questions for him that “had nothing to do with conversations he. had directly with the President.”
“His conversations about stopping a free and fair election, about criticizing and stopping the electoral college vote count, about his coordination with campaign officials on the devices.” private property is not being transferred, all those issues are not prerogative and he has some explaining to do,” the California Democrat added.
Rep. Trump personally.”
But the question of how executive privilege arose over Meadows’ cooperation with the commission doesn’t seem to have deterred either side from moving forward on their commitments, at least for now. .
Members of the panel, including Thompson, have grown frustrated with Meadows in recent weeks because of his lack of cohesion. Meadows even defied his impeachment before the committee on November 12, which suggests the next step is a duel that could lead the jury to begin a criminal referral process against him.
Before being scheduled to be removed from office earlier this month, Terwilliger issued a statement saying his client would not cooperate with the committee until the courts had ruled on Trump’s claims. on executive privilege, noting that “a bitter legal dispute with the commission.”
But the tone seems to have changed in recent days, and committee members have hinted they will provide a clear explanation of the situation with Meadows this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday.
“I hope that there will be movement especially Mark Meadows that we will know shortly, in the next day, in the next two days. And I think everyone will be pleased with that,” said the House of Representatives. Republican Adam Kinzinger said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the committee will make a decision “this week” on whether it will indict Meadows on a misdemeanor charge of contempt of court. subpoena or not.
In response to the news that Meadows is now cooperating with the commission, Aguilar said on CNN on Saturday that “there is still a small window that (Meadows) can still comply here.”
“And so we’re keeping an eye on the calendar ahead of this week, and if Mr Meadows complies with the subpoena he’s been given, then we can prevent some of those steps,” Aguilar added, referring to to the criminal path. contempt that the committee always had as an option at its disposal.
