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House votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress

Mark Meadows
Posted at 11:09 PM, Dec 14, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-14 23:33:13-05

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress.

Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger were the only two Republicans to join Democrats in voting for the resolution. The final vote was 222-208.

The vote in the House came about 24 hours after the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol voted for a resolution to hold Mark Meadows, who served under former President Donald Trump, in contempt of Congress.

Meadows has refused to sit for a deposition despite turning over thousands of documents to the committee.

On Monday, Rep. Liz Cheney read texts she said were made between Meadows and Trump allies as people stormed the Capitol.

"We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now," Don Trump Jr. said, according to Cheney. "It has gone too far and gotten out of hand."

Cheney said Meadows also turned over text messages from Fox News hosts who were encouraging him to tell the president to do more to stop the attack.

"Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home," Laura Ingram said, according to Cheney. "This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy. Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished."

Meadows has contended that he cannot comply with the deposition because the former president asserted executive privilege.

However, the committee noted that Meadows has written a book and already turned over documents, so he should be able to discuss non-privileged information.

The resolution voted for in the House will go to the Department of Justice, which will determine whether Meadows is criminally charged with contempt of congress.