The legal troubles for Donald Trump and his former officials continue to mount as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6 insurrection sheds more light on their actions ahead and during the deadly incident that day. Now, a member of Congress is calling for the arrest of two of the former president’s closest allies.
Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, of California, appeared for an interview on MSNBC on Tuesday where he called for the confinement of former Trump officials Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon.
“I am absolutely concerned,” said Lieu. “Which is why I have legislation that will allow the House of Representatives to execute inherent contempt power. It’s a power the Supreme Court has upheld. We can use it to find witnesses or put them in confinement. It’s time we use that because right now, the trial for Steve Bannon for example was not set until August, Lieu said.
“For Mark Meadows, probably further. And when he can delay enforcement subpoenas that long and — it renders them meaningless. I highly urge the House legal counsel to reverse course because their strategy has not worked. Congressional subpoenas have been rendered largely meaningless,” he added.
As noted by Raw Story, “Meadows is in this position because he abruptly decided to stop cooperating with the committee by citing concerns over executive privilege, even though he admitted that none of the documents he turned over are barred through executive privilege.”
As Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) explained, the request from the committee is simply to ask questions about those documents.
Liu’s comments came just after the start of the congressional debate over whether to hold former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress.
Watch the interview below from MSNBC:
