Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is suing the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, CNN reported on Wednesday.
Meadows is asking a federal court to block enforcement of the subpoena the committee issued him as well as the subpoena it issued to Verizon for his phone records, according to the complaint filed Wednesday.
Meadows is one of four Trump allies who were subpoenaed by the committee in September but has refused to cooperate. Last month, the committee threatened Meadows with a criminal contempt referral, and on Wednesday signaled it would pursue a criminal contempt referral.
Meadows alleges that the subpoenas are "overly broad and unduly burdensome," while claiming that the committee "lacks lawful authority to seek and to obtain" the information requested.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who serves as vice chair of the panel, told CNN Wednesday evening, "We look forward to litigating that." Cheney noted that Meadows is refusing to answer questions about documents that he turned over voluntarily.
"The committee has received a number of extremely interesting, non-privileged documents from Mr. Meadows. These include text messages and emails from his private cell phone and private email account. He's produced these documents, they are not privileged," she said. "They include documents that are directly related to what President Trump should have been doing on January 6 during the attack, and now he is refusing to appear to answer questions about those non-privileged documents."
Other Trump allies who received a subpoena at the same time as Meadows are his former aide Steve Bannon, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller who had also served as an aide to Republican Rep. Devin Nunes.
In late October, the House of Representatives voted to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress for defying the subpoena.
In May, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to form a commission to probe the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The bill was approved in a 252-175 vote, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
Two days later, however, Senate Republicans blocked the legislation. Senators voted 54-35 on the House-passed bill, falling short of the 10 GOP votes needed to get it over an initial hurdle.
Without any pathway forward in the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would use her power to pursue a select committee in the House that will be controlled by Democrats.