Investigators have threatened Donald Trump’s former chief of staff with criminal prosecution after he stated Tuesday that he is no longer willing to help with the investigation into the January assault on the US Capitol.
Mark Meadows, who failed to appear before a congressional panel last month, is seen as a critical witness to Trump’s role in efforts to rig the election.
Meadows first refused to testify before a House of Representatives committee, but then made an arrangement with lawmakers on sharing material before reversing course.
“Now actions by the select committee have made such an appearance untenable,” Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a new letter to the committee circulated among US media.
Meadows changed his mind after learning over the weekend that the committee had “issued wide-ranging subpoenas for information from a third-party communications provider,” according to the lawyer.
“We now have every indication, based on the information provided to us last Friday — information on which Mr. Meadows could anticipate to be questioned — that the select committee has no intention of honoring executive privilege boundaries,” Terwilliger stated.
Meadows was Trump’s chief of staff when supporters of the previous president stormed the US Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to prevent Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory from being certified.
