Washington, Dec 9 (UNI/Sputnik) The US House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot will vote next week on contempt charges against Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, despite his suit against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the panel's members, the committee said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Meadows filed charges against Pelosi and all nine members of the panel as they were preparing contempt charges against him. Meadows asked the court to invalidate the subpoena that the committee had issued to him and Verizon, the cellular operator for his prior personal phone.
"Meadows's flawed lawsuit won't succeed at slowing down the Select Committee's investigation or stopping us from getting info we're seeking. The Committee will meet next week to advance a report recommending that the House cite Meadows for contempt and refer him for prosecution," the committee wrote on Twitter.
Trump's right hand man refused to testify before the committee claiming he could not discuss issues covered by executive privilege, which include real-time communications with many individuals as the events of January 6 unfolded. In response, the panel began preparing charges of criminal contempt against Meadows.
The committee has rejected Meadows' argument about executive privilege. It said President Joe Biden did not try to use any power of executive privilege to protect Meadows from having to testify.
On January 6, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, in an effort to prevent certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. As a result of the riot, a protester and a policeman were killed, and three others died from causes unrelated to the violence.
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