Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a suite of other aides are being forced to testify before a grand jury hearing evidence in the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, rejecting former President Trump’s claims of executive privilege.
The decision, first reported by ABC News, came in a sealed ruling last week from D.C. District Court Judge Beryl Howell — one of her last decisions before stepping down as chief judge.
The order requires testimony from a number of Trump aides, including some that have already appeared before the grand jury but declined to answer questions about their conversations with the former president.
The decision is a turning point for Meadows, who dodged a subpoena from the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 after the panel’s work identified him as a key player in a suite of different efforts to keep Trump in office after losing the 2020 election. The DOJ declined to prosecute Meadows for contempt of Congress, but special counsel Jack Smith — appointed by the department to oversee the investigation — subpoenaed him in February in connection with his criminal probe.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday described the student loan payment pause as “gone” as part...
