Interesting how the indictment of Steve Bannon produced a fork in the road, vis a vis the January 6 Commitee and the people they subpoenaed to testify. Pre-Bannon indictment, the smart money was on stalling, waiting to see if the issue of Donald Trump’s purported executive privilege could be adjudicated in the court system and more importantly, how long that would take. But post-indictment, a lot of dominoes are falling quickly. Right-wing activist Ali Alexander intends to testify because he’s too broke to mount a legal defense, and for whatever reasons of his own, Mark Meadows has now decided that the better part of valor is to stop fighting and testify. Politico Congress Minutes:
Deposition time: Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will come in for a deposition with the select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection “next week,” its vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), said in a brief interview with POLITICO.
“We’re in a situation where he is under subpoena. He’s produced documents. He’s coming in for a deposition. We anticipate that this will be an initial deposition, and we’ll make a determination as we go about the extent of his compliance. He’s under a legal obligation, and we anticipate that he will fulfill that legal obligation.”
— Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)
The backstory: Committee chair Bennie Thompson said in a statement earlier Tuesday Meadows had been “engaging” with the panel through his attorney, had turned over records and would soon appear for a deposition. Meadows’ effort to engage with the committee punts its threat to hold him in contempt of Congress — for now. It is unclear, however, how the panel will navigate Meadows’ attempts to claim privilege.
Meadows’ attorney said in a statement earlier Tuesday they were still working to “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.”
Meadows’ take: We’ve reached out to Meadows’ attorney about the deposition timing and will update with a response when we get one.
— Nicholas Wu
Things are finally starting to move. The logjam which existed when Bannon first ignored and subpoena and started stonewalling has been displaced. Let’s see how much testimony can be had between now and the end of the year because the clock is ticking.
It will be of great interest to hear from Meadows directly what Rudy Giuliani said to Trump to persuade Trump to say he won the election the night of November 3, which is what got this ball rolling.
I will believe it when he gives his deposition. I think this is another stall tactic to avoid criminal contempt charges.
He’s going to have “GOP amnesia”. Or lots of 5th Amendment.
None of this was an accident. To prove they were serious, the 1/6 Committee was always going to have to make an example of somebody. And Bannon, with his combination of arrogance, stupidity and possible substance abuse, was a perfect candidate for that. He didn’t disappoint.
Then Jeffrey Clark just tried to pull the same trick of “executive privilege” in person with the committee and got a contempt referral for trying to be cute (and yes, he WILL get the same treatment as Bannon). Put it altogether and it’s no surprise why Meadows is deciding that he’d better do better.
Being deposed is not quite testifying before the committee. This deposition will give the committee an idea of whether they have to have him held in contempt and refer the matter to D.O.J. At least that was NPR’s take this morning.