Meadows is asking a federal court to block enforcement of both 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.
The lawsuit comes after the committee signaled it would pursue a criminal contempt referral against Meadows because of his refusal to sit for a deposition in the investigation into the Capitol riot.
Prior to Meadows’ decision to halt cooperation with the committee, he had turned over approximately 6,000 pages worth of documents. That includes information from both his personal email account and personal cell phone that are relevant to the committee’s investigation.
In one November 6, 2020, text exchange with a member of Congress, Meadows reportedly said “I love it” in a discussion about the possibility of appointing alternate electors in certain states, and the member acknowledged the plan would be “highly controversial.”
The committee also has in its possession a text exchange between Meadows and an organizer of the January 6 rally that preceded the riot from early January 2021, and text messages about the need for Trump to issue some kind of a public statement to stop the January 6 attack at the Capitol.
Meadows has not indicated he will claim 5th Amendment protections, but multiple witnesses subpoenaed by the committee, including Trump ally Roger Stone and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, have said they intend to do so.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
