The House committee investigating the Capitol attack had threatened Meadows with a criminal contempt referral because he had previously refused to cooperate.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

President Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, will appear before the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Today's announcement comes more than two months after Meadows received his subpoena. During weeks of disagreements between the two sides, Meadows claimed executive privilege prevents him from cooperating. Now he's turning over records and has agreed to appear. Joining us to discuss this is NPR congressional reporter Claudia Grisales. Hi, Claudia.

CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: So what exactly did Meadows agree to here?

GRISALES: So both Mark Meadows, through his attorney, and the panel say they've reached this agreement for him to appear for this initial deposition and provide some documents to the committee. Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, has repeatedly noted his client's objections to cooperating based on claims of executive privilege, and today said they continue to work with the panel and see if they can reach an ultimate agreement that does not require Meadows to waive this immunity - so, in other words, discuss issues that are not covered by this legal shield.

Meadows, in particular, was directed by former President Trump not to comply with the committee's request, saying he still retains some executive privilege claims here to keep some documents and conversations secret. But lawmakers and others argue that the privilege belongs to the current occupant of the presidency, and President Biden has already waived that in Meadows' case. Also, this fight over executive privilege is at the center of a lawsuit filed by Trump against the committee.

SHAPIRO: OK, so not every issue has been resolved. I know that the panel had been hinting as Meadows missed deadlines that it might consider referring him for criminal contempt. Are they taking that off the table?

GRISALES: No. The committee warned it is still weighing taking these additional steps against Meadows, depending on how cooperative he is with this testimony before the panel. Chairman Bennie Thompson said the committee will, quote, "continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition."

SHAPIRO: And the panel is set to meet tomorrow to consider a contempt referral against a different witness, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. Bring us up to date on that.

GRISALES: Right. This is the former Trump ally who played a key role in Trump's efforts to involve the Justice Department in a probe into false election fraud claims. Clark is the second such case of criminal contempt before the committee. The first was former strategist Steve Bannon, who was indicted earlier this month, is now - and he is now battling that charge. In Clark's case, he came in with his attorney earlier this month as well before the committee, but he declined to answer specific questions, asserting privilege prevented him from doing so. He was not a White House adviser on January 6, so legal experts tell me any claims to executive privilege in this case will not work.

SHAPIRO: So, as you said, former President Trump is fighting this. And today an appellate court heard arguments in the case, where he's suing the committee to stop the release of some records. What's the status of that?

GRISALES: Right. Trump is trying to stop the release of those records from the National Archives from being transmitted to the committee. They have requested hundreds of pages. And a district court has already ruled against Trump, so he moved to appeal this ruling. So these records are on hold at this time. Now, this three-member panel of judges - they are all Democratic appointees. They heard arguments today in that effort to block the release of those records. It was a 3 1/2-hour hearing, where they heard a lot from both sides. But ultimately, the judges appeared to be more skeptical of Trump's claims. And we should note, this is a case witnesses are following very closely because it could dictate really how far Trump's claims to executive privilege really go and how much they will ultimately cooperate.

SHAPIRO: That fight over the January 6 investigation moving forward on multiple fronts, and congressional reporter Claudia Grisales following all of them for us. Thank you.

GRISALES: Thank you much.

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