The names of Trump administration officials and associates who played a role in the scheme to allow President Donald Trump to retain power by overturning the results of his election defeat to Joe Biden were revealed during the Committee’s public hearings on January 6.
Witness testimony has provided insight into the White House in the days leading up to and on the day of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by a violent pro-Trump mob.
Cassidy Hutchinson, an ex-White House aide, testified at the latest hearing about conversations between White House officials and Trump on the day of the attack, as well as her former boss, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’, actions.
Meadows served as Trump’s chief of staff in the final year of his presidency. Meadows had firsthand knowledge of Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election results as the president’s right-hand man.
He met with Georgia state officials on Jan. 6 to press them on alleged election fraud and said the National Guard would protect “pro-Trump people” before the riot at the Capitol, according to USA TODAY.
Hutchinson, Meadows’ former White House aide, testified before the Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday that Meadows was well aware of the potential for violence on the day of the attack, appeared unconcerned when it did, and then sought a presidential pardon.
The former chief of staff was summoned by the committee, but he refused to appear. Meadows was found in contempt of Congress by the Democratic-controlled House, but the Department of Justice decided not to charge him criminally, according to Politico.
Meadows was considered one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress before taking his post inside the Trump White House in 2020, where he represented a district in western North Carolina in the House for seven years.
Meadows made a name for himself as a fresh face on Capitol Hill in 2013, when he helped lead a group of Republican lawmakers who forced a government shutdown because the House and Senate couldn’t agree on spending legislation, according to CNN. He was a staunch supporter of the Tea Party movement, which arose in the aftermath of Obama’s election victory in 2008.
He established himself as one of Congress’s more conservative members, helping to found the House Freedom Caucus in 2015, which ousted Republican House Speaker John Boehner and pushed the Republican Party further to the right, according to Vox. He announced his retirement from Congress in December 2019 to work for Trump.
Meadows was a member of Trump’s administration until the end of his term. Soon after, he accepted a position with a newly formed DC-based organization founded by retired South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint that provides support to GOP lawmakers.
However, Meadows’ association with Jan. 6 and Trump’s attempt to thwart the certification of 2020 election results has kept his name in the news.
Since its inception last summer, the Jan. 6 Committee has worked to paint a picture of his involvement.
He was also the subject of a voter fraud investigation in North Carolina for registering to vote at an address where he did not live, according to USA TODAY.
