In the ongoing probe into the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, the chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, has emerged as one of the central figures in the attempted coup. 18 news outlets are requesting a court to release the court filings in Meadows’s lawsuit against the Jan. 6 committee to the public.
The Hill reports that 18 news outlets, including ABC News, CNN, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Associated Press, and National Public Radio, have all requested that a court unseal documents related to Meadows’s lawsuit against the committee including a May 2 court order, and be released to the public.
The attorneys of the outlets all cited that the documents are subject to “First Amendment and common law rights of access.”
While Meadows initially cooperated with the Jan. 6 committee, Meadows walked back his cooperation which he still continues to fight today.
“These filings (together, the ‘Sealed Records’) are all subject to the First Amendment and common law rights of access. The public docket provides no explanation as to why, despite the strong presumption of transparency in this Circuit, these judicial records are not available to the public,” said the court filing Monday. “The Court should therefore permit the Press Coalition to intervene and grant its motion for access to the Sealed Records.”
The filing also said that Meadows’s court filing should be made public due to the committee’s goal of “establishing a public reckoning of that event.”
Meanwhile, in a report by Michael Kranish of the Washington Post on Meadows, the former Trump Chief of Staff claimed in his book that part of his job was to be the one who would tell Trump that he was wrong. However, Kranish revealed that White House aides during the Trump administration did not witness Meadows do such a thing.
Speaking on MSNBC Monday, Kranish said the White House aides he spoke to did not witness Meadows make such moves, suggesting that either Meadows was lying or only spoke with Trump in private.
Kranish explained that even after the states had certified their respective election results by December 14, Meadows was at the White House and met with the now-former president and his allies in Congress and tweeted that they were still looking into Trump’s claim of voter fraud.