Trump Ex-chief Ends Cooperation With Capitol Riot Investigators

Washington, Dec 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Dec, 2021 ) :Donald Trump's former chief of staff said Tuesday he was no longer willing to cooperate with the probe into January's assault on the US Capitol as lawmakers were told the seat of American democracy remains vulnerable to repeat attacks.

Mark Meadows, who failed to appear before the congressional panel last month, is seen as a key witness to Trump's role in efforts to overturn the election by undemocratic means.

Having initially snubbed a subpoena to testify before the House of Representatives committee, setting up possible contempt charges, Meadows later reached an agreement on sharing information with investigators -- before reversing course again.

"Now actions by the select committee have made such an appearance untenable," Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a new letter to the committee circulated among US media.

The lawyer said Meadows' change of mind had come after he learned over the weekend that the committee had "issued wide ranging subpoenas for information from a third party communications provider." "We now have every indication from the information supplied to us last Friday -- upon which Mr. Meadows could expect to be questioned -- that the select committee has no intention of respecting boundaries concerning executive privilege," added Terwillinger, who did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Meadows was serving as Trump's chief of staff when backers of the former president stormed the US Capitol on January 6 in a bid to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory.

Trump has invoked "executive privilege" -- a carve-out available in theory only to sitting presidents to protect their private exchanges with aides -- in a bid to avoid having to turn over documents requested by the committee.

House investigators believe Meadows, former White House strategist Steve Bannon and other Trump advisors and staffers could have information on links between the White House and the mob of Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol.

Bannon was arrested last month on a contempt of Congress charge after refusing his own subpoena and a Federal judge sitting for a preliminary hearing Tuesday set July 18 for his trial.

The committee has subpoenaed a number of Trump's allies, as it closes in on the actions of those involved in planning the rallies in Washington that preceded the assault on Congress.

Trump urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and "fight like hell" in a fiery speech on January 6 that was the culmination of months of baseless fraud claims about a contest he had lost fairly to Biden.

News of the about-face by Meadows came as the watchdog overseeing the US Capitol Police told Congress the agency had not done enough since the assault to guarantee lawmakers' safety in the event of another attack.

Inspector General Michael Bolton told the Senate Rules Committee that of 200 security upgrades the department provided to the inspector general, only 61 had been made.

He said the agency "lacks the overall training infrastructure to meet the needs of the department, the level of intelligence gathering and expertise needed, and an overall cultural change needed." Committee chairwoman Amy Klobuchar said security failures had included mistakes "at the top of the Capitol Police," as well as in the Defense Department and other agencies.

"The United States Capitol Police agrees with the inspector general that the department must continue to improve and expand its intelligence and protective capabilities," the force said in a statement responding to Bolton.

Trump's supporters have downplayed January 6 and call the probe into the assault a "witch hunt," co-opting the term Trump uses for any investigation into allegations of his wrongdoing.

The treatment of rioters detained in the wake of the attack is worse than that reserved for the "terrorists in Guantanamo," Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right firebrand and Trump ally in the House, told a news conference on Tuesday.