The elected officials of the American House of Representatives spoke out Tuesday in favor of criminal proceedings against Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff of Donald Trump, because of his refusal to testify in the investigation into the assault on the Capitol.
By this vote, Mark Meadows, one of the closest advisers to the former president, is referred to federal prosecutors who will have to decide whether or not to indict him for “attempting to obstruct a congressional investigation”.
The investigation in question: a parliamentary committee that seeks to shed light on the events of January 6, 2021, when thousands of supporters of Donald Trump invaded the seat of the United States Congress in an attempt to prevent elected officials from certifying the victory of Joe Biden for the presidential election.
Mark Meadows, the “chief of staff” of the tempestuous president at the time, is at the heart of all their attentions.
But the 62-year-old man opposed his silence to all the court orders issued by the so-called “January 6” commission. It is on the grounds that he tries by his silence to “hinder” this investigation by Congress that elected officials have recommended criminal proceedings.
Presidential privileges?
This former senior White House official, known to be very discreet, faces a prison sentence.
The refusal of Mark Meadows to testify does not constitute a lack of cooperation with the investigation, assures his lawyer, George Terwilliger, listing the thousands of official documents, emails and SMS that he agreed to provide to the elected officials of the commission.
But rather a way of “accessing” the wish formulated by Donald Trump to keep certain information secret, in the name of presidential privileges.
Many of these text messages to Mark Meadows were read aloud by the group of parliamentarians responsible for the investigation, during meetings broadcast live on the country’s 24-hour news channels.
They come from elected Republicans, personalities of the conservative chain Fox News, and even from the president’s own son, Donald Trump Jr … All implore him to push the Republican billionaire to speak out to make his supporters back down, who were then taking action. assault Congress.
One way for the parliamentary committee to underline the central role of the former chief of staff in the Trump camp, and the weight that his testimony could bring to the investigation. If he decided to speak.
“We are not here out of mirth,” said Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican elected officials very critical of Donald Trump, who agreed to sit on this commission, on Tuesday.
“This is serious business and it is a step which we would not have reached if it was not necessary”, she pleaded before the vote on Tuesday.
” Witch hunt “
Mark Meadows is already the second of the former president’s faithful to be threatened with criminal prosecution as part of this “January 6” investigation.
And little by little, the unrest in Donald Trump’s entourage is making itself felt.
The former real estate mogul is trying by all means to prevent the commission from getting too close and getting hold of documents that could incriminate him. It multiplies the legal remedies, for the moment unsuccessful.
Without waiting for the outcome of these disputes, the commission has already interviewed more than 300 people.
The group of elected officials is in fact moving forward, anxious to publish its conclusions before the mid-term elections of November 2022, during which the Republicans could regain control of the House and bury its work.
For some in the Republican opposition strive on the contrary to minimize this attack, qualifying the parliamentary inquiry as a “witch hunt”, one of the favorite expressions of … Donald Trump.