Page 533 - Contempt News Today

Find out. >> do you believe the evidence uncovered by your committee could be used by the department of justice to obtain a probable cause warrant for the records that you know mark meadows has but has not yet handed over? is this one way that could play out? >> you know, i dont want to speak for the department of justice. they would need a criminal case against mr. meadows in order to advance that. were now pursuing the criminal contempt, and i think weve laid out the case. whether or not the d...

Attorney general, in part so that mr. clark could alter the department of justice conclusions regarding the election. mr. clark has now informed the committee that he anticipates potential criminal prosecution related to these matters, and he intends in upcoming testimony to invoke his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. as mr. meadows non-privileged texts reveal, he was communicating multiple times with a member of congress, a currently-serving colleague of ours, who was worki...

Simply because mr. meadows didnt cooperate with us. well do what the law allows us to do. we gave him every opportunity. as you know, last week we had this situation and we pulled it back in hopes of mr. meadows and his attorney coming in and talking to us, but at the end they didnt. so we dont have much choice. thats why the committee went forward this evening with the recommendation on contempt, because he didnt show. and were tired of the meadows game of whack a mole back and forth. the commi...

Criticism. whether for example on january 6th he came around to what some of those people were texting him, we just dont have all the evidence yet. walk us through legally what were eyeing tonight which democrats say they have the vote told him in contempt. then what? >> well, look, once they have this vote, which is likely to pass, theres going to be referral to the u.s. attorneys office, and it is going to be the u.s. attorneys office which makes a decision about whether to take it to a grand ...

Executive privilege claim in light of everything were seeing? >> well, if the house does vote to find him in contempt, i think this is going to be a tougher decision for the justice department than in the case of steve bannon. first of all, there is a long-standing justice department policy that says the presidents closest advisors and chief of staff would count, are, current and former, are immune from any compulsion to testify before congress. they dont have to show up. slicked, he has coopera...

Presidents chief of staff knows is subject to a presidential privilege shielding it from disclosure. but it is also truth that not everything he knew or did during that period is privileged. mark meadows knows that. its why he sent us the documents he did, and why he -- what made his book possible. thats why the law required him to show up for his deposition and specify in response to each question, what the answer was and whether or not that answer in fact was privileged from disclosure. his re...

Sean hannity urged. as the violence continued, one of the presidents sons texted mr. meadows. quote, hes got to condemn this shit asap. the capitol police tweet is not enough, donald trump jr. texted. >> the nine members of the bipartisan committee unanimously voted tonight to hold meadows in contempt for refusing to answer their questions. but its clear even in the absence of his testimony, the committee has amassed a tremendous amount of evidence. cnn congressional correspondent ryan nobles jo...

Protections, depending on how the executive privilege litigation pans out and he has not completely stonewalled the committee. thinking about he would be potentially willing to do an interview, turning over thousands of pages of documents. it could be a difficult decision for the attorney general whether he wants to prosecute them, whether theres a sufficient case to argue that meadows is not cooperating at all or should be held in contempt. well have to wait and see what happens. mark meadows...

Compass, is perceiving this in the same way. and i think as elie said, the question is, you know, why wasnt trump responding to this? he was the one who they all believed had the power to stop this, and he was the one who apparently didnt because these texts just kept coming. >> its amazing to me don junior who is -- i was going to say the biggest joke of the trump family besides the dad, is on that day saying, you know, youve got to stop this. asha, mark meadows was on hannity just tonight. her...

Last ditch effort to avoid that. but the committee is about to vote. and well see if he tries his real last card in his hand, which is going in and invoking the fifth amendment, which i think would stop the criminal contempt, but raises a host of other issues. >> laura jarrett, folks at home might wonder why mark meadows is happy to go on fox news to talk about events that day. but not speak to the committee. it is a point that the committee itself made in their report. mr. meadows has shown his...