Meadows Claims “Leaked” Texts from Fox Hosts Are Being “Weaponized” by House Committee

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claimed that “leaked” texts from Fox News hosts who urged him to archer erstwhile President Donald Trump to bid his supporters to basal down during the storming of the United States are presently being “weaponized” by the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the attack.

“We’ve tried precise hard, successful a precise transparent and accommodating way, to stock nonprivileged information,” Meadows said successful an interrogation with Newsmax. “And what we recovered retired contiguous is that not lone did that conscionable get disregarded, but past they tried to weaponize substance messages, selectively leaked them, to enactment retired a narrative, rather frankly, that the president didn’t act.”

None of the Fox hosts who sent Meadows substance messages–Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade, and Sean Hannity–have acknowledged the messages connected their programs.

Ingraham, for instance, told Meadows that the “president needs to archer radical successful the Capitol to spell home. This is hurting each of us. He is destroying his legacy.”

Kilmeade, for his part, told Meadows that the onslaught was “destroying everything you person accomplished.”

The House Select Committee has recommended that Meadows beryllium charged with contempt of Congress aft helium refused to cooperate with the investigation.

Last week, quality outlets reported that Meadows had decided not to beryllium for a deposition, a reversal from an announcement the week anterior that helium would comply with the committee’s subpoena ordering him to appear.

“We agreed to supply thousands of pages of responsive documents and Mr. Meadows was consenting to look voluntarily, not nether compulsion of the Select Committee’s subpoena to him, for a deposition to reply questions astir non-privileged matters. Now actions by the Select Committee person made specified an quality untenable,” George J. Terwilliger III, an lawyer for Meadows, wrote successful the letter obtained by CNN.

“In short, we present person each denotation from the accusation supplied to america past Friday – upon which Mr. Meadows could expect to beryllium questioned – that the Select Committee has nary volition of respecting boundaries concerning Executive Privilege,” helium added, noting that Meadows is inactive consenting to reply written questions.

“Nonetheless, arsenic we person before, we reiterate our willingness to see an interrogatory process of Select Committee written questions and answers from Mr. Meadows truthful that determination mightiness beryllium some an orderly process and a wide grounds of questions and related assertions of privilege wherever appropriate,” Terwilliger wrote.