The January 6th committee referred Mark Meadows to the DoJ for a contempt of Congress charge last night. It was discussed here in Adam’s (highly recommended) post on the topic. But in case you missed it, here’s Liz Cheney reading several damning texts that Mark Meadows submitted before he stopped cooperating with the investigation into the attempted coup:
Cheney sets the stage by reading pleas from trapped lawmakers, making clear what everyone already knew: It was Trump’s mob, and he had the power to call it off. More interesting for reasons I’ll get to in a moment were the agonized demands from Trump fluffers who fretted about his “legacy,” expressing alarm Trump would ruin “everything we’ve worked for” by standing idly by as the mob sacked the Capitol. Texts in that vein came from a trio of Fox News personalities — Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity — and namesake fail-son Donald Trump Jr.
Cheney called Trump’s inaction a “supreme dereliction of duty” and said the committee is exploring this question: “Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’s official proceedings to count electoral votes?”
That’s the right question. I think Adam’s theory about the hearing is fascinating:
This contempt hearing is not just intended to hold Meadows in contempt, it is intended to disturb the network around Trump and see what happens without disrupting or taking down that network. Basically, the House Select Committee on the events of 6 January is running an influence operation on Trump and Trump world.”
Sounds about right to me. We’ll see what hornets fly out of the nest Cheney kicked over last night.
Open thread.