Judge dismisses Meadows bid to block Jan. 6 panel’s subpoenas

A federal judge late Monday dismissed a suit from former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in his bid to block two subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including one for his phone records.

In a 27-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found that the committee’s work was protected by the Constitution’s speech and debate clause, likewise pushing back against arguments from Meadows that the panel lacked a sufficient legislative purpose.

“At the time it issued the subpoena to Meadows, the Select Committee had evidence that Meadows was in contact with President Trump on January 6th and participated in efforts to challenge the election results,” Nichols wrote.

“Meadows is therefore a proper subject of the Select Committee’s investigation, and the Court cannot say that the Committee’s demands for his testimony, documents, and cell phone records are irrelevant to its investigative task.”

The ruling, though following an already nearly yearlong legal battle, is likely to do little to deliver documents to the committee. Any appeal from Meadows would drag the discussion into next year, past the committee’s end-of-year sunset date.

But it’s significant for the numerous other legal challenges to the panel, as many make similar arguments and have likewise landed before Nichols.

It’s also a setback for Meadows, who managed to dodge prosecution from the Justice Department even after the full House voted to hold the former chief of staff in contempt of Congress after he failed to show up for in-person testimony before the panel.

While Meadows did turn over some documents and phone records to the committee, including roughly 2,300 text messages, a privilege log given to the panel indicated Meadows withheld more than 1,000 text messages and dozens of emails.

That level of cooperation appeared to thread the needle for the Justice Department, which ultimately prosecuted two of the four recommendations from the House, filing charges against former Trump White House strategist Stephen Bannon and adviser Peter Navarro.

Navarro’s case is still underway, but Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for his defiance of the committee — a punishment he plans to appeal.

Updated at 9:05 a.m.