WASHINGTON (AP) — In an abrupt reversal, an lawyer for former White Home chief of workers Mark Meadows stated his shopper won’t cooperate with a Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, citing a breakdown in negotiations with the panel.
Lawyer George Terwilliger stated in a letter Tuesday {that a} deposition could be “untenable” as a result of the Jan. 6 panel “has no intention of respecting boundaries” regarding questions that former President Donald Trump has claimed are off-limits due to government privilege. Terwilliger additionally stated that he realized over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications supplier that he stated would come with “intensely private” info.
READ MORE: Ex-Trump aide Meadows cooperating with Home Jan. 6 panel
Terwilliger stated in a press release final week that he was persevering with to work with the committee and its workers on a possible lodging that will not require Meadows to waive the manager privileges claimed by Trump or “forfeit the long-standing place that senior White Home aides can’t be compelled to testify” earlier than Congress.
“We admire the Choose Committee’s openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged matters,” he stated then.
A spokesperson for the panel didn’t have instant touch upon Terwilliger’s letter. The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, stated final week that Meadows had been participating with the panel by his lawyer, producing information and agreeing to seem for an preliminary deposition.
Thompson stated the committee would “proceed to evaluate his diploma of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition.” He has stated that any witnesses who don’t comply might be held in contempt of Congress.
READ MORE: Trump replaces Mulvaney, naming Rep. Mark Meadows as chief of workers
In halting cooperation, Terwilliger additionally cited feedback from Thompson that he stated unfairly forged aspersions on witnesses who invoke their Fifth Modification proper towards self-incrimination. A separate witness, former Justice Division official Jeffrey Clark, has stated he’ll invoke these Fifth Modification rights.
“On account of cautious and deliberate consideration of those elements, we now should decline the chance to seem voluntarily for a deposition,” Terwilliger wrote within the letter.
The reversal comes as Meadows has been receiving consideration for a brand new guide, launched Tuesday, which revealed that Trump obtained a optimistic COVID-19 take a look at earlier than a presidential debate and was far sicker than the White Home revealed on the time.
Trump — who informed his supporters to “battle like hell” earlier than a whole bunch of his supporters broke into the Capitol and stopped the presidential electoral rely — has tried to hinder a lot of the committee’s work, together with in an ongoing court docket case, by arguing that Congress can not receive details about his personal White Home conversations.
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Related Press author Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
