Mark Meadows stops cooperating with Capitol attack investigation

In a sudden reversal, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will not cooperate with a House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, a lawyer for the former Trump aide said on Tuesday.

Trump gave Meadows a glowing blurb for his book but news of its contents kicked off a firestorm of controversy and prompted a backlash from the former presidenttowards Meadows.

Executive privilege covers the confidentiality or otherwise of communications between a president and his aides. The Biden administration has waived it in the investigation of 6 January. Trump and allies entwined in events leading up to the storming of the Capitol, around which five people died, have invoked it.

That was a reference to Jeffery Clark, a former justice department official who pitched a plan to Trump regarding overturning election results and who, like Meadows, has been threatened with a charge of contempt of Congress if he does not cooperate with the 6 January investigation.

Meadows has claimed executive privilege covers any communications with Trump that the committee may wish to examine.

Another former Trump aide, former campaign chairman and White House strategist Steve Bannon, has been charged with criminal contempt of Congress, the first such charge since 1983. Facing a fine and jail time, he has pleaded not guilty.