Donald Trump's Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Starts Cooperation With Capitol Riot Probe

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has started cooperating with the House select committee leading the January 6 Capitol riot.

Select committee head Rep. Bennie Thompson said that Meadows has been contacting the group through his lawyer, according to an NBC News report.

Thompson noted that Meadows has produced records to the committee and will soon show up for an initial deposition.

Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger, said that his client at the time was under the instructions of Trump to respect long-standing principles of executive privilege, which currently stands at the courts to resolve the conflict with the claim.

The select committee had considered filing a criminal contempt of Congress referral against Meadows when he failed to show up to answer questions under oath in November.

Terwilliger said that they will continue to work with the select committee regarding the Capitol riot probe to see if they can reach an agreement that does not require Meadows to waive executive privilege. The lawyer added that they appreciate the select committee's openness to receiving voluntary responses on nonprivileged topics.

Thompson said that they will continue to review Meadow's degree of compliance with their subpoena after the deposition.

House Select Committee on Capitol Riot

Select Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff said in a tweet that the former White House chief of staff of the Trump administration has a "legal and moral obligation" to work with the committee, according to a CNBC News report.

Schiff added that he is glad that Meadows now agreed to appear and has already provided documents.

Trump's spokeswoman Liz Harrington said in an email that "the Unselect Committee" is not interested in the fact, but only a continuation of "their never-ending With Hunts."

Harrington added that Trump will continue to protect the Constitution and executive privilege for his and all other future Administrations.

Meadows was subpoenaed by the committee in late September for records and testimony concerning his and Trump's activities before and during the Capitol riot, according to an ABC News Go report.

Meanwhile, Trump adviser Steve Bannon was charged by the Justice Department with criminal contempt of Congress for snubbing the committee's subpoena.

Bannon has pleaded not guilty and was not serving in the White House at the time of the January 6 rally.

Trump's lawyers have directed some of his allies to refuse cooperation and have sued to block the release of some White House records, both on privilege grounds. However, the select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot rejected the claims of privilege.

U.S. President Joe Biden waived privilege over a trove of White House records sought by the investigators.

The Biden administration had also said that it would not assert privilege over Meadow's testimony.

The select committee had also subpoenaed former senior Pentagon official Kash Patel and Trump aide Dan Scavino in late September. However, it is not yet clear whether the two Trump allies have cooperated with the select committee.

The House select committee has done more than 150 interviews and has issued around 45 subpoenas as part of its investigation.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Mark Meadows is cooperating with January 6 panel, chairman says - from CBS News