Former Trump administration chief of staff Mark Meadows is reportedly complying with a subpoena request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hand over documents relating to its investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to CNN, Meadows has turned over the same evidence he gave to the January 6 House select committee, which includes thousands of text messages and emails from between Election Day 2020 and January 20, 2021, the date of President Joe Biden’s inauguration and former President Donald Trump’s final day in office.
Notably, Meadows refused to turn over hundreds of documents and communications to the January 6 committee, citing a potential violation of Trump’s so-called “executive privilege.” His refusal to comply with that portion of the committee’s subpoena resulted in the House of Representatives recommending that the DOJ charge him for contempt of Congress. However, the department has so far refused to do so.
It’s possible that the DOJ has not followed the House’s recommendation because the agency was negotiating with Meadows.
Meadows’s handing over of evidence to the DOJ means that he is now the highest-ranking former Trump administration official to comply with the department’s investigation. That inquiry has been ramping up, and now includes every aspect of Trump’s allegedly illicit actions following his election loss nearly two years ago — including his involvement in a plot to use fake electors to disrupt the Electoral College and his Save America PAC fundraising efforts that misled donors into believing they were giving him money for his legal challenges against the election’s results.
Many on social media saw Meadows’s actions as proof he was cooperating with the investigation.
“This is why DOJ did not prosecute Meadows for contempt of Congress: he was already working with them,” said Tristan Snell, an anti-Trump lawyer. “This is NOT good for Trump. Meadows was Trump’s right hand man on everything related to January 6.”
Others pointed out that Meadows’s actions weren’t that noteworthy, as he was only giving the DOJ evidence he had already supplied to the January 6 committee.
“This is a start — a start — for DOJ towards Meadows’ cooperation,” said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, who added that it was “odd that [the DOJ] only subpoenaed materials he already gave to the Jan. 6 Committee (as opposed to everything).”
Barb McQuade, a law professor and former U.S. attorney, agreed that Meadows’s actions weren’t definitionally cooperative.
“Subpoena compliance is not cooperation. Meadows gave DOJ same documents he already gave J6C,” McQuade tweeted. “Refusal would result in contempt and jail.”
“Cooperation means volunteering more information than you have to and substantially assisting in prosecution of others,” she added.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re shoring up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy