Documents:Trump's Inner Circle Was Appalled by Insurrection

On 13 December 2021,the House Committee on January 6 met and voted to submit the name of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Randall Meadows to the Department of Justice for consideration of criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress.Mr.Meadows originally cooperated with the Committee,submitting thousands of pages of documents,including texts and emails,before abruptly changing his mind-presumably because he had angered former President Donald Trump by his submission of the documents and a recent book he wrote about his time serving in the Trump administration.The full House must now vote on the recommendation before the Justice Department can consider the case for submission to a Grand Jury,which can then issue an indictment.* Indeed,at the meeting last night,the Committee shared some of the text messages Mr.Meadows had received on January 6 from many close to the former President,including his son,Donald Trump,Jr. and several Fox News hosts.All of them expressed horror at the insurrection.Fox News host Laura Ingraham,for instance,said: Mark,the President needs to tell the people in the Capitol to go home.This is hurting all of us.He is destroying his legacy.* Her Fox colleagues spoke in the same vein.Sean Hannity inquired: Can he make a statement?Ask people to leave the Capitol.* Brian Kilmeade: Please get him on TV.Destroying everything you have accomplished.* Most interesting was Donald Trump Jr.'s profane response: He's got to condemn this shit ASAP.The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.* Mr.Meadows replied: I'm pushing it hard.I agree.* In another text,Trump,Jr. added: We need an oval office address.He needs to lead now.It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.* After the Committee meeting,former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farrah,a longtime colleague of Mr.Meadows,expressed her surprise at what had become of him.He had always seemed to be a straight-up institutionalist to her,a man who believed in the Constitution and wouldn't strive to overturn a Constitutional process such as the Electoral College vote-counting on 6 January or defy a Congressional subpeona,possibly exposing himself to criminal prosecution.