Meadows did not do anything with such information, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump administration, who testified before a House subcommittee investigating the Capitol disturbance.
According to a court filing from the House panel investigating the Capitol riot, a senior White House staffer informed Mark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, may turn violent. Meadows got information before the assault that “suggested that there may be violence,” according to transcripts in the 248-page statement filed late Friday by Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump White House.
“Mr. Ornato came in and indicated that we have intel reports stating that there may potentially be violence on the 6th,” Hutchinson said. Mr. Meadows then responded, “All right.” Let’s speak about it,” he said, referring to Secret Service agent Anthony M. Ornato.
“I know that Mr. Meadows was approached with concerns,” Hutchinson said, adding that she wasn’t sure if he “regarded them as real concerns.”
“But, again, I’m not sure what he did internally with that information,” Hutchinson added.
Meadows filed a lawsuit against the committee in December, just hours after it said it would pursue contempt charges against him for refusing to answer questions regarding the attack. Meadows was then referred to the Justice Department for possible contempt of Congress charges by the House.
Meadows has turned up hundreds of text messages but would not sit for an interview. In his complaint against the panel, he claimed that the panel had no legal jurisdiction to issue subpoenas and that, as a result of his White House job, he was immune from having to testify.
Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair and one of two Republicans on the committee, said in a statement that their new petition “urges the Court to reject Mark Meadows’s unfounded assertions and put an end to his obstruction of our inquiry.”
They claimed that “complete understanding” of Meadows’ participation in the events of Jan. 6, as well as the days leading up to and following the attack, is “important.”
Meadows’ testimony about communication with Congress before Jan. 6, 2021, White House plans to replace the leadership of the Justice Department so the department could pursue Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud, and efforts to create alternate, or fake, slates of state electors who could change the outcome of the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden is running for, are all on the table, according to the panel’s Friday filing.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee, said this week that at the next hearings, members will present “evidence” to show that Trump, his inner circle, and those who stormed the Capitol worked together.
