Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, has agreed to cooperate with the House committee probing the events culminating in the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Meadows “has produced records” and “will soon appear for an initial deposition,” according to a statement from Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the investigation.
“The Committee will continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition,” added Thompson.
Meadows had previously withheld his cooperation. The The New York Times reports:
The change of stance for Mr. Meadows, who had previously refused to cooperate with the committee in line with a directive from Mr. Trump, came as the panel prepared to seek criminal contempt of Congress charges against a second witness who has stonewalled its subpoenas. It marked a turnabout after weeks of private wrangling between the former chief of staff and the select committee over whether he would participate in the investigation, and to what degree.
CNN adds:
Meadows’ lawyer George Terwilliger said in a statement to CNN that there is now an understanding between the two parties on how information can be exchanged moving forward, stating that his client and the committee are open to engaging on a certain set of topics as they work out how to deal with information that the committee is seeking that could fall under executive privilege.
But the agreement could be fragile if the two sides do not agree on what is privileged information. News of the understanding comes as Trump’s lawyers argued in front of a federal appeals court in Washington that the former President should be able to assert executive privilege over records from the committee.
The Washington Post provides additional context:
Meadows is the highest-profile member of Trump’s inner circle who is known to be cooperating or who the committee has publicly acknowledged is cooperating. Committee members have previously said that many people with connections to the events of that day have voluntarily engaged with investigators, but they have not specified who these individuals are or how high up they were in the Trump administration.