Contempt charges recommended against Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff

The House committee investigating the Jan.6 assault on the Capitol on Monday recommended that the Justice Department

, after he refused to cooperate and did not attend. to declare last week.

The committee produced a 51-page document with their questions about thousands of emails and about 2,000 text messages that Meadows provided them, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Among the senders of the alleged communications that the former chief of staff received, linked to the events of January 6, are some legislators and Donald Trump Jr, son of the former president.

"This has gone too far and gotten out of hand," says a message from Donald Trump Jr, according to investigators.

Mark Meadows speaks to reporters outside the White House, Oct. 26, 2020, in Washington.

File Photo Patrick Semansky / AP

Meadows had promised to deliver "interesting and important" documents

and would be questioned about them at a hearing scheduled for December 8, but the night before appearing his attorney announced that he would not appear. 

“It all comes down to this: Mr. Meadows started by doing the right thing: cooperating.

He turned over records that he did not try to hide behind some excuse.

But in an investigation like ours, that's just a first step, "committee chair Bennie Thompson said Monday before voting to recommend the charges.

[Federal judge denies Trump's request to keep secret documents related to the robbery of the Capitol]

One of the key points that

seeks to

.

According to the report, Meadows reportedly sent an email on January 5 assuring that National Guard troops would protect supporters of Donald Trump.

The recipient has not been disclosed.

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A week ago, the former White House chief of staff sued the committee alleging that he had no authority to compel him to appear and requested that two of his subpoenas be annulled as, according to him, "excessively broad and unduly burdensome."

In recent weeks, dozens of former Trump officials and allies have been called to appear by the Senate committee that has interviewed about 150 people, although Meadows is not the only one who has refused to cooperate.

In November, Steve Bannon, a former close adviser to Trump, was indicted in contempt of Congress by a grand jury after refusing to testify in the investigation of the assault on the Capitol.

Bannon has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face trial in July 2022.