The former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sued Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Select Committee requesting that a federal judge prevent the committee from enforcing the subpoena it issued to him, as well as the subpoena it issued to Verizon for Meadows’ phone records, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The lawsuit reads:
For months, Mr. Meadows has constantly endeavored in good faith to reach an agreement with the Select Committee in order for the Select Committee’s to receive important, non-privileged material.The current President of the United States, through counsel, purported to waive the former president’s claims of privilege and immunity. As a result, Mr. Meadows, a witness, has been put in the untenable position of choosing between conflicting privilege claims that are of constitutional origin and dimension and having to either risk enforcement of the subpoena issued to him, not merely by the House of Representatives, but through actions by the Executive and Judicial Branches, or, alternatively, unilaterally abandoning the former president’s claims of privileges and immunities. Thus, Mr. Meadows turns to the courts to say what the law is.
The House Select Committee warned Mark Meadows that it will cite him for contempt if he fails to appear, after the former White House chief of staff indicated he would refuse to testify.
Mark Meadows argues that he has been put in the “untenable” position of having to choose between conflicting privilege claims that are of constitutional origin and dimension.
The lawsuit comes the day after Republican political consultant and former Nixon and Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone through his lawyer said that he is invoking his Fifth Amendment rights and declining to testify before the House January 6 commission.