White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with Donald Trump (File)

UPDATE, DEC 18:

Multiple sources say Donald Trump’s Energy Rick Perry sent a text message to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for an “AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY” to overturn the November 2020 election and keep Trump in power.

The message, sent the day after the election, suggested that state legislatures could ignore outcomes and choose Trump electors in place of those for Joe Biden.

A Perry spokesman said the former Texas Governor denies that he wrote the text. However, multiple people confirmed that the phone number with the message is Perry’s. It is registered with James Richard Perry of Texas and connected to Perry’s e-mail when he was Energy Secretary.

The spokesman had no explanation for the links.

UPDATE, DEC 15:

The House votes 222-208 for contempt charges against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, over his defiance of a subpoena by the House select committee on the Capitol Attack.

Two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — both of whom are on the select committee — joined all Democrats in supporting the charges.

If convicted, Meadows would be the first former Congressman held in contempt in almost 200 years.

See also EA on Monocle 24 and Australia’s ABC: Mark Meadows’ Contempt of House Committee on Capitol Attack

On the House floor, Cheney read some of the text messages sent to Meadows on January 6, imploring him to get a statement from Donald Trump to halt the attack.

As the violence was underway on the 6th, it was evident to all, but we know that for 187 minutes, President Trump refused to act. And he refused to act when his action was required, it was essential, and it was compelled by his duty, compelled by his oath of office.

Donald Trump Jr. and Fox TV polemicists, including Trump’s close friend Sean Hannity, sent the messages — only for Trump Jr. to be seen on video laughing as his father watching marchers move towards the Capitol, and Fox’s Trumpist commentators to dismiss the assault and falsely blame it on leftist “radical groups”.

Cheney also recounted the pressure by Meadows and Trump on state officials, for weeks before the assault to overturn the November 2020 election.

The committee released a November 4 message from an unidentified Republican member of Congress to Meadows, before states had finished counting ballots, for an “agressive strategy” in which Republican-controlled legislatures in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and other states would defy the result and send Trump electors to Washington.

Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland asked, “How did this text influence the planning of Mark Meadows and Donald Trump to try to destroy the lawful Electoral College majority that had been established by the people of the United States and the states for Joe Biden?”

ORIGINAL ENTRY, DEC 14: The House select committee on the January 6 Capitol Attack recommends contempt charges against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

The committee voted for the charges on Monday after Meadows retracted his cooperation for testimony and documents. The full House will now vote on whether to pursue criminal prosecution.

The House has approved the charges against former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and will soon vote on prosecution of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.

EA on Monocle 24: Meadows, Trump, and the House Committee on the Capitol Attack
Trump Loyalist Clark Refuses to Answer Committee Questions About Capitol Attack

Meadows initially provided about 9,000 documents to the committee. They reinforced the claims of other sources that he was in contact with the organizers of the “Stop the Steal” rally — addressed by Donald Trump outside the White House — that preceded the invasion of the Capitol, seeking to block the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden. The Chief of Staff was also involved in Trump’s pressure on state officials to overturn election results.

But Meadows then halted his cooperation. Lawyer George Terwilliger cited the committee’s pursuit of mobile phone records. He tried to invoke executive privilege, even though Donald Trump’s attempt to do so has been derided by judges.

The committee voted 9-0 for the charges after the vice chair, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, read text messages to Meadows from Donald Trump Jr. and Fox TV hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade. They urged Meadows, who was alongside Trump Sr. through January 6, to have his boss speak out amid the Capitol invasion.

Trump Jr. texted, “He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP.” He followed up, “We need an Oval address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

Meadows replied, “I’m pushing it hard.”

Ingraham, one of the loudest outlets for Trump’s election disinformation, appealed, “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. He is destroying his legacy.”

Cheney also read messages to Meadows from people surrounded by the attackers, such as, “We are under siege up here at the Capitol.”

The committee also presented evidence of Meadows’ role in the Trump effort to overturn Biden’s victory. He guided allied members of Congress, and pressed for slates of pro-Trump electors rather than certification of Biden’s. Meadows was tapped by Trump to oversee the reversal of the vote in Georgia, a key state in Biden’s triumph, amid Trump’s phone calls warning and threatening top Republican officials who supervised the vote.

See also Trump and Chief of Staff Meadows Pressured Justice Department to Overturn Election

The chair of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, summarized:

It comes down to this: Mr. Meadows started by doing the right thing — cooperating. When it was time for him to follow the law, come in and testify on those questions, he changed his mind and told us to pound sand. He didn’t even show up.

The committee also noted Meadows’s promotion of his memoir, “The Chief’s Chief”: “Mr. Meadows has shown his willingness to talk about issues related to the select committee’s investigation across a variety of media platforms — anywhere, it seems, except to the select committee.”