By — Kenichi Serino Kenichi Serino By — Hannah Grabenstein Hannah Grabenstein Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/who-is-mark-meadows-and-why-is-he-important-to-the-jan-6-hearings Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Who is Mark Meadows and why is he important to the Jan. 6 hearings? Politics Jun 17, 2022 5:01 PM EDT While Mark Meadows, Trump’s last White House chief of staff, is not expected to testify publicly as part of the House Jan. 6 committee hearings, he has become a key character in the understanding of what happened that day. As chief of staff, Meadows was intimately involved in the former president’s communications and actions in his final months in office, as Trump tried to cast the 2020 elections as fraudulent. Several witnesses or those who cooperated with the committee behind closed doors have referenced conversations or communications with Meadows in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack. WATCH: Jan. 6 committee examines how Trump pressured Pence to overturn the 2020 election Meadows initially cooperated with the Jan. 6 committee. He provided some documents, including text messages and emails, to the committee. But in December, the committee said he stopped cooperating. The committee then recommended that DOJ criminally charge Meadows. But on the same day DOJ indicted Navarro, the department said it would not pursue charges against the former chief of staff. READ MORE: Who are the witnesses testifying at the Jan. 6 hearings? In April, CNN published hundreds of text messages between Meadows and various members of Congress, lawyers and other Trump allies, before and after the Jan. 6 insurrection. In the run-up to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the texts focused on the false conspiracy theory that the election was invalid and the subsequent efforts to stop the certification of results. On the day of the insurrection, Meadows responded to an earlier text from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, in which the congressman pushed for Pence to reject electoral votes Jordan thought were unconstitutional. In response, Meadows said, “I have pushed for this. Not sure it is going to happen[.]” In a video testimony the committee played on June 16, Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short testified that Meadows told him he agreed that the vice president didn’t have the power to reject electors on Jan. 6, or to delay certification. But Short also said, “Mark told so many people so many different things.” Other texts captured pleas from lawmakers and allies for Meadows to encourage the president to do something to stop the violence. According to news reports, Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson has testified to congressional investigators that Meadows had been warned prior to Jan. 6 that the pro-Trump demonstrations may turn violent. For more on the key players in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, click here. By — Kenichi Serino Kenichi Serino By — Hannah Grabenstein Hannah Grabenstein @hgrabenstein
While Mark Meadows, Trump’s last White House chief of staff, is not expected to testify publicly as part of the House Jan. 6 committee hearings, he has become a key character in the understanding of what happened that day. As chief of staff, Meadows was intimately involved in the former president’s communications and actions in his final months in office, as Trump tried to cast the 2020 elections as fraudulent. Several witnesses or those who cooperated with the committee behind closed doors have referenced conversations or communications with Meadows in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack. WATCH: Jan. 6 committee examines how Trump pressured Pence to overturn the 2020 election Meadows initially cooperated with the Jan. 6 committee. He provided some documents, including text messages and emails, to the committee. But in December, the committee said he stopped cooperating. The committee then recommended that DOJ criminally charge Meadows. But on the same day DOJ indicted Navarro, the department said it would not pursue charges against the former chief of staff. READ MORE: Who are the witnesses testifying at the Jan. 6 hearings? In April, CNN published hundreds of text messages between Meadows and various members of Congress, lawyers and other Trump allies, before and after the Jan. 6 insurrection. In the run-up to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the texts focused on the false conspiracy theory that the election was invalid and the subsequent efforts to stop the certification of results. On the day of the insurrection, Meadows responded to an earlier text from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, in which the congressman pushed for Pence to reject electoral votes Jordan thought were unconstitutional. In response, Meadows said, “I have pushed for this. Not sure it is going to happen[.]” In a video testimony the committee played on June 16, Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short testified that Meadows told him he agreed that the vice president didn’t have the power to reject electors on Jan. 6, or to delay certification. But Short also said, “Mark told so many people so many different things.” Other texts captured pleas from lawmakers and allies for Meadows to encourage the president to do something to stop the violence. According to news reports, Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson has testified to congressional investigators that Meadows had been warned prior to Jan. 6 that the pro-Trump demonstrations may turn violent. For more on the key players in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, click here.