Mark Meadows’ E-Mails Said National Guard Would ‘Protect Pro-Trump People’ Before Capitol Riot

Former President Donald Trump‘s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sent an email to staffers in which he pledged to deploy the National Guard to “protect pro-Trump people” on the day before the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol.

The revelation was part of a report released on Saturday by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol that contained previously unknown information about Meadows’ role in the deadly siege.

“Mr. Meadows participated in meetings and calls during which the participants reportedly discussed the need to ‘fight’ back against ‘mounting evidence’ of purported voter fraud after courts had considered and overwhelmingly rejected Trump campaign claims of voter fraud and other election irregularities,” it says.

“He participated in one such meeting in the Oval Office with Mr. Trump and Members of Congress, which he publicly tweeted about from his personal Twitter account shortly after. He participated in another such call just days before the January 6 attack with Mr. Trump, Members of Congress, attorneys for the Trump re-election campaign, and ‘some 300′ State and local officials to discuss the goal of overturning certain States’ electoral college results on January 6, 2021,” the report adds.

According to the report, Meadows wrote on January 5 that “the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro-Trump people’ and that many more would be available on standby,” indicating that he had foreknowledge of the events of January 6.

Meadows “received text messages and emails regarding apparent efforts to encourage Republican legislators in certain States to send alternate slates of electors to Congress, a plan which one Member of Congress acknowledged was ‘highly controversial’ and to which Mr. Meadows responded, ‘I love it,'” the report states.

Meadows also “exchanged text messages with, and provided guidance to an organizer of the January 6th rally on the Ellipse after the organizer told him that ‘[t]hings have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction.’”

On Monday, the bipartisan investigative panel voted unanimously voted to hold Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for his testimony.

“History will not look upon you as a victim. History will not dwell on your long list of privilege claims or your legal sleight of hand,” Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), said in a statement. “History will record that in a critical moment in our democracy, most people were on the side of finding the truth, of providing accountability, of strengthening our system for future generations. And history will also record, in this critical moment, that some people were not.”