Oh my goodness. On January 6, as the riot was on going, a lawmaker texted to Meadows that Pence should unilaterally throw out votes. (Is anyone else listening? Did I hear that right?)
Others were beginning Trump to call this off.
They are not yet revealing the name of the lawmaker because the investigation is ongoing.
🔥Yowie.
On Jan. 7, a lawmaker apologized that nothing "worked." (translation: Darn. We failed.)
It's clear that the committee made the strategic decision to drop a few bombshells.
They clearly decided that the investigation is far enough along for them to do this.
It is a way to up the pressure on the people holding out.
Mark Meadows willingly turned these messages over to the select committee, but then, enraged, put the brakes on his cooperation when the committee wanted his private phone records.
It seems to me (and this is a guess, I've never done an investigation like this—my work was criminal defense)
the committee is releasing these to put pressure on the holdouts. It's like saying, "We know what's going on so you may as well come clean."
It looks like most of his argument rests on the same arguments that Trump is trying in his executive privilege case: Challenging the legitimacy of the select committee itself.
I get that it's a stall technique, but it can't work for long.
It also makes him look super guilty.
2/
The subpoena looks narrowly tailored to me. Without seeing it (and I've only read up to page 2) it looks like they want to know who he was talking to in the months leading up to the insurrection.
He gives a few arguments for why the subpoena should be held to be invalid.
Text messages leave no doubt that the White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.
From text messages, it was clear the White House knew there was a "siege" and the protesters had stormed the capitol, breaking windows. "Armed standoff at the House chamber doors."
Multiple Fox News hosts knew the president needed to act immediately.
They texted Meadows.
Meadows turned over those texts to the committee.
As the violence continued, even one of the Trump sons tried to get Trump to call it off.