A top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows met on Tuesday with the January 6 committee for about six to seven hours and new text messages related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol were revealed during the meeting, CNN reports.
According to the news network, Ben Williamson, deputy assistant to the president and a senior adviser to Meadows, met with House investigators after he was summoned along with several aides of former President Donald Trump to testify about the January 6 insurrection.
Williamson, who was among officials with “close ties” with Trump, went ahead with an interview despite Meadows’s disapproval of the collaboration, according to The Daily Mail.
The summons noted that Williamson was reportedly contacted by former White House communications director Alyssa Farah in the midst of the attack with Farah urging Williamson and Meadows to issue a statement condemning the violence to Trump.
Another text message conversation with Williamson is cited in the letter seeking information from Ivanka Trump.
‘Is someone getting POTUS? They have to ask the protesters to leave. Someone is about to be killed,’ read a text, which Farah said came from her.
“I’ve been trying for the last 30 minutes. He literally stormed the outer oval to take out the first one. This is completely insane!” Williamson replied, according to CNN.
The summons also said Williamson may be able to testify on Meadows’ communications with Georgia election officials, the organizers of the January 6 ‘Stop the Steel’ rally, prior to the Capitol attack, voter fraud with Justice Department officials, and the officers of the Chief of Staff would have arrived during the deadly attack on the US Capitol.
