Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Major U.S. airline CEOs were in the hot seat on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, questioned by lawmakers on whether they appropriately spent billions in taxpayer dollars.

The airline industry received a bailout of $54 billion at the height of the pandemic when air travel came to a screeching halt. The goal was to preserve airline jobs, and in return airlines agreed to place limits on executive compensation, eliminate stock buybacks and dividends and not involuntary furlough employees.

Even with the aid, however, airlines said they had no choice but to shrink. They incentivized thousands of employees to accept early retirement offers, buyouts and take unpaid leave.

The moves left them with few resources when air travel came roaring back. During the summer and fall, taxpayers bore the brunt of the cuts — facing daylong cancellations, delays, lines and hold times.

“The return of demand for air travel has been intense,” American CEO Doug Parker wrote in his opening statement. “Like other airlines, we have experienced some operational challenges in recent months, which we have worked to manage as deftly as possible.”

Lawmakers questioned the CEOs on whether airlines have held up their end of the bargain since the goal of the aid was to preserve staff for the eventual travel rebound.

“We end[ed] up with airplanes in the wrong place, people in the wrong place,” Parker said regarding the airline’s mass flight cancellations in October. “So that was the driver of the vast majority of cancellations, but … it gets unfortunately mischaracterized as we don’t have enough people.”

Parker explained they actually have more pilots and flight attendants for shifts than they’ve had in the past, but that employees pre-pandemic were more willing to pick up extra trips, which fueled some of their operational challenges.

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly admitted to some scheduling mistakes over the past year.

“We just need to make sure that we don’t overschedule the airline relative to the people resources that we have,” he said, “and we’ve made a number of adjustments in that regard.”

And United revealed they are struggling with a regional pilot shortage.

“All of us, particularly our regional partners, simply don’t have enough airplanes to fly,” United CEO Scott Kirby told lawmakers. “We have almost 100 airplanes effectively grounded right now, regional aircraft, because there’s not enough pilots flying, which means we just can’t at the moment fly to all the small communities that we would like to.”

But the executives were in agreement that the road to recovery would have been worse if it weren’t for the payroll support program. PSP saved nearly 400,000 direct passenger airline jobs, according to data from the airlines.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say the program saved the airline industry,” Parker added.

Executives addressed worker shortage concerns by detailing their aggressive hiring initiatives. In all, the major U.S. airlines plan to hire around 30,000 new workers in 2022.

U.S. airlines handled the recent Thanksgiving travel rush without a major hiccup, but they fear the emerging variant could pose another potential setback.

“The omicron variant has created further uncertainty,” Delta COO John Laughter told lawmakers, “and there is no clear consensus on when business and international travel will return.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — It’s been hard for Americans to avoid headlines and statements about “tapering” in recent months, as economists and policymakers debate how to best support the economy while the pandemic ebbs in the U.S.

The Federal Reserve said in a policy statement Wednesday that it was greatly reducing its massive bond-buying program, a pandemic-era initiative that flushed cash into financial markets and aimed to buoy the economy during the health crisis.

In the context of current economic policies, this ongoing process of slowing down asset purchases by the Fed is referred to as “tapering.” Simplistically, it refers to the gradual slowdown of the economic stimulus policy that was initiated at the height of the pandemic, when businesses shuttered and unemployment skyrocketed.

“The Fed has been buying up bonds since March of 2020 — bonds and mortgage-backed securities — at a certain rate, and they’re going to slow the rate at which they’re buying up these assets until they’re not buying them anymore,” Megan Greene, global chief economist at the advisory firm Kroll Institute and a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, told ABC News.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during his post Fed-meeting news conference, “We’re basically two meetings away now from from finishing the taper.”

The move to speed up tapering comes as inflation has thrown a new wrench in the Fed’s ability to use its tools to support the economy. Economists have attributed the rising inflation to pandemic-related imbalances as global supply chain snags and labor shortages hobble the ability of supply to keep up with surging demand, pushing up prices.

The Fed’s pandemic policies helped stimulate the economy and consumer demand during the height of the crisis, but the U.S. central bank does not have monetary tools to ease the supply constraints.

“We are phasing out our purchases more rapidly because with elevated inflation pressures and a rapidly strengthening labor market, the economy no longer needs increasing amounts of policy support,” Powell said Wednesday. “In addition, a quicker conclusion of our asset purchases will better position policy to address the full range of plausible economic outcomes.”

In addition to doubling the pace of its tapering, the Fed also signaled that it could hike interest rates up to three times in 2022.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MAYFIELD, Ky.) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday surveyed storm damage and met with families in neighborhoods ravaged by the deadly tornadoes .

Biden viewed damage in Mayfield before heading to Dawson Springs and also make remarks on the federal response and “extreme weather,” according to the White House.

Shortly before noon, Marine One landed in Mayfield, and Biden was greeted on the tarmac in Fort Campbell by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, stopping for a five-minute conversation.

Deputy principal press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s message on Wednesday “is that he and the federal government intend to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, by providing any support that is needed to aid recovery efforts and support the people of Kentucky — and of other impacted states as they rebuild.”

“It is going to be a very long, long road ahead. And so that’s the president’s focus right now is to talk, specifically to hear from the elected officials on the ground,” she told reporters earlier on Air Force One.

Before receiving a briefing from state and local officials in Kentucky, Biden vowed all the federal support he can provide to the area, both now and in the months to come.

“Immediately after a disaster is a time when people are really, really moving, and trying to help each other and trying to get things done. But after a month, after six weeks, after two months, people can get themselves to a point where they get fairly depressed about what’s going on, particularly young kids, particularly people who’ve lost somebody. And so I just want you to know, the help that we’re able to offer at the federal level, is not just now,” Biden said.

“I’ve instructed my team to make you all aware of everything that is available from a federal level,” Biden added later on. “And some of it has to do outside of FEMA, outside of Homeland Security, there’s other programs, including education, there’s a whole range of things, but I’m here to listen.”

The president seemed struck by the scale of the damage he saw on his aerial tour.

“As you fly over here, as I’ve done in the past, I’ve not seen this tornado, this much damage from a tornado. You know, you think, but for the grace of God, why was I not 100 yards outside that line? Which makes it so different,” he noted.

After a briefing in Mayfield by local leaders “on the impacts of the tornadoes and extreme weather,” according to the White House, Biden will then continue on to Dawson Springs and that tour will culminate in remarks at 4 p.m. EST.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this week said Biden will not be delivering a “major speech” there but rather will be “trying to be a source of comfort to people who have gone through a devastating couple of days in their communities.”

“I would expect while he’s there, he will receive an update from local authorities on what their needs are, see local elected officials and discuss in person with them and make sure they’re getting what they need from the federal government,” Psaki said.

“He also wants to hear directly from people, and he wants to offer his support directly to them,” Psaki added. “People who have gone through over the last couple of days, really incredible challenges losing their homes, losing loved ones, losing parts of their community that they’ve grown up with and I think he wants to offer his support directly to them as well.”

Biden was joined for the visit by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who were on the ground there on Sunday.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Five Federal Bureau of Investigation officials “solicited” prostitutes while on an overseas trip, the Department of Justice inspector general said in a two-page report.

Four of the officials “solicited, procured, and accepted commercial sex overseas.”

“The OIG investigation also found that four of those officials lacked candor about their interactions with prostitutes and other misconduct during OIG compelled interviews and compelled polygraph examinations, in violation of FBI policies, and that one of those officials made false statements in an OIG compelled interview and compelled polygraph examination in violation of federal law, when the official denied having engaged in sex acts with a prostitute,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote.

Soliciting a prostitute overseas while working for the FBI is a violation of FBI and DOJ policy.

One FBI official “lacked candor” to the Inspector General “when the official denied observing or placing pills in a package to be delivered to a foreign law enforcement officer and that another of the officials failed to report having been provided such a package.”

The inspector general says there were about 100 white pills that were seen being given to a foreign official.

A sixth FBI official did not report the misconduct in violation of DOJ policy.

The inspector general said of the five who solicited prostitutes two resigned, two retired, and one was removed. The report said three of the individuals also failed to report their interactions with foreign nationals.

There are no details in the report about where the prostitution solicitation occurred or the names of the officials involved.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The House voted Tuesday night to hold former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to appear for a deposition.

The vote was 222-208, with GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voting with all Democrats.

Meadows is now the first former lawmaker ever held in criminal contempt by Congress — and the first held in contempt since 1832 — when former Rep. Sam Houston was held in contempt for beating a colleague with a cane.

The vote sends the matter to the Justice Department, which will determine whether to bring any charges against Meadows, after previously doing so against Trump ally Steve Bannon.

During debate on the floor Tuesday evening, and earlier in the day, in the House Rules Committee, members of the Jan. 6 select committee released new text messages from the tranche of records Meadows had turned over to the committee.

“I heard Jeff Clark is getting put in on Monday. That’s amazing. It will make a lot of patriots happy, and I’m personally so proud that you are at the tip of the spear, and I could call you a friend,” a text to Meadows from an unknown number read, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

The new messages further underscored Meadows’s importance to the congressional investigation, as a key figure in Trump’s orbit who personally participated in discussions about challenging the election results and advocated for voter fraud investigations from his perch in the West Wing.

“Mr. Meadows’s testimony will bear on another key question before this committee: Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes?” Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, said Tuesday.

On Jan. 3, Meadows told an unnamed member of Congress that Trump “thinks the legislatures have the power but that the Vp has power too,” according to Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., who read the message about the counting of the electoral votes on the House floor.

On Nov. 4th, an unnamed member of Congress texted Meadows that Republican-led legislatures should “just send their own electors to Congress” to challenge the official results in key states, and allow the Supreme Court to determine how to award the votes and the winner of the election.

Lawmakers on the panel argued that Meadows, despite his deference to Trump’s alleged claims of executive privilege, was improperly refusing to appear under subpoena to discuss topics referenced in the materials he already shared with Congress or mentioned in his new memoir.

Meadows turned over some 9,000 documents from personal email accounts and a cell phone to the committee, including urgent text messages from Republican lawmakers imploring him to get Trump to something to stop the violence.

But he then reversed course and refused to appear under subpoena to answer questions about the records he provided.

During Monday’s committee meeting, before members voted unanimously to recommend Meadows be held in contempt, Cheney quoted extensively from text messages sent to Meadows during the riot from Fox News hosts, GOP lawmakers and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.

Cheney said the messages left “no doubt” the White House “knew exactly what was happening” at the Capitol during the riot.

“He’s got to condemn [the riot] ASAP,” Trump Jr. told Meadows in a text message, according to Cheney, saying that Trump’s tweet about Capitol Police “is not enough.”

“I’m pushing it hard,” Meadows replied. “I agree.”

“We need an Oval Office address,” Trump Jr. said in a follow up message. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

“Please get him on tv,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade wrote to Meadows. “Destroying everything you have accomplished.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read aloud from text messages Meadows received from unnamed GOP lawmakers before and after the riot.

“Yesterday was a terrible day,” one wrote. “We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”

Cheney quoted again from text messages Tuesday morning.

“It is really bad up here on the Hill,” one message read.

In another, an unnamed lawmaker texted Meadows: “Fix this now.”

“We need to question him about emails and texts he has given us without any claims of privilege,” Cheney said.

Commitee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday that “only three people” of “over 300” have not cooperated with the committee. He shared that Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is among those scheduled to cooperate and speak to investigators.

“I have no great desire to be here seeking consideration of this contempt referral. Mr. Meadows was a colleague for more than seven years. But that doesn’t excuse his behavior. If anything, his time as a member of the House should make him more aware of the potential consequences of defying a congressional subpoena,” Thompson said.

Republicans for the most part defended Meadows and suggested the committee’s push to hold Meadows in contempt would squander any chance they had to secure his cooperation.

“Today they are destroying executive privilege,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said on the House floor. “It is a vote to put a good man in prison.”

In a statement Tuesday, Meadows attorney George Terwilliger said his client “never stopped cooperating” with the panel. “What message does that duplicity send to him as well as to others who might be inclined to consider cooperating in good faith to the extent possible?”

Democrats and Republicans aligned with the committee blasted Meadows’ argument, pointing to the fact that he published a memoir detailing conversations with Trump around Jan. 6.

“This is a witness who is refusing to comply with the law,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said. “But look at his book and you get more information than our committee did.”

Trump ally Steve Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress for rebuffing the committee’s subpoenas and has pleaded not guilty. That trial is scheduled to begin in July 2022.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The House on Tuesday is expected to hold Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for his testimony from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Meadows, a former House member, would be the first former lawmaker to be held in criminal contempt by Congress — and the first lawmaker held in contempt — since 1832.

The vote would refer the matter to the Justice Department to decide whether to bring charges against the North Carolina Republican. Meadows could face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine if convicted.

Meadows turned over some 9,000 documents from his personal cell phones to the committee, including urgent text messages from Republican lawmakers imploring him to get Trump to something to stop the violence.

But he then reversed course and refused to appear under subpoena to answer questions about the records he provided.

During Monday’s committee meeting, before members voted unanimously to recommend Meadows be held in contempt, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair of the panel, quoted extensively from text messages sent to Meadows during the riot from Fox News hosts, GOP lawmakers and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.

Cheney said the messages left “no doubt” the White House “knew exactly what was happening” at the Capitol during the riot.

“He’s got to condemn [the riot] ASAP,” Trump Jr. told Meadows in a text message, according to Cheney, saying that Trump’s tweet about Capitol Police “is not enough.”

“I’m pushing it hard,” Meadows replied. “I agree.”

“We need an Oval Office address,” Trump Jr. said in a follow up message. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

“Please get him on tv,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade wrote to Meadows. “Destroying everything you have accomplished.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read aloud from text messages Meadows received from unnamed GOP lawmakers before and after the riot.

“Yesterday was a terrible day,” one wrote. “We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”

She quoted again from text messages Tuesday morning.

“It is really bad up here on the Hill,” one message read.

In another, an unnamed lawmaker texted Meadows: “Fix this now.”

“We need to question him about emails and texts he has given us without any claims of privilege,” Cheney said.

Commitee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told the committee that “only three people” of “over 300” have not cooperated with the committee. He shared that Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is among those scheduled to cooperate and speak to investigators.

“I have no great desire to be here seeking consideration of this contempt referral. Mr. Meadows was a colleague for more than seven years. But that doesn’t excuse his behavior. If anything, his time as a member of the House should make him more aware of the potential consequences of defying a congressional subpoena,” Thompson said.

Republicans for the most part defended Meadows and suggested the committee’s push to hold Meadows in contempt would squander any chance they had to secure his cooperation.

“Today they are destroying executive privilege,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said on the House floor. “It is a vote to put a good man in prison.”

In a statement Tuesday, Meadows attorney George Terwilliger said his client “never stopped cooperating” with the panel. “What message does that duplicity send to him as well as to others who might be inclined to consider cooperating in good faith to the extent possible?”

Democrats and Republicans aligned with the committee blasted Meadows’ argument, pointing to the fact that he published a memoir detailing conversations with Trump around Jan. 6.

“This is a witness who is refusing to comply with the law,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said. “But look at his book and you get more information than our committee did.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla.) — Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, the one-time associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz who in May pled guilty to multiple charges including sex trafficking a minor, has reached a verbal agreement to pay back the county over $1.8 million in restitution, according to the Seminole County attorney.

County Attorney Bryant Applegate told Seminole County commissioners on Tuesday that he had reached a “verbal” deal for Greenberg — Gaetz’s self-described one-time wingman — to pay back nearly $1.9 million in restitution related to his time in office, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to ABC News.

If Greenberg fails to pay the restitution, the county will move to go after other entities, the source said.

Greenberg’s lawyer, Fritz Schiller, confirmed the verbal agreement to ABC News.

Greenberg, who reached a plea deal earlier this year and has been cooperating in the ongoing federal investigation into potential sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz and others, was initially charged with over 30 counts last year, including defrauding the Seminole County Tax Office out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through schemes ranging from buying sports memorabilia and cryptocurrency to paying women he met on a self-described “sugar daddy” website using the office credit card.

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.

“When I became aware of some of Greenberg’s misdeeds, I deeply regretted my friendship with him,” Gaetz told Pensacola ABC affiliate WEAR in October. “I do believe that it’s fair for the people of Northwest Florida to judge me based on the associations that I’ve had, and I deeply regret my association with Joel Greenberg, politically, socially and otherwise.”

Greenberg is scheduled to be sentenced in March after his sentencing was delayed twice over the summer.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate narrowly averted financial calamity Tuesday by passing legislation to raise the federal borrowing limit by $2.5 trillion dollars.

All Democrats voted to raise the debt limit. No Republicans joined them.

The legislation heads to the House next, where it is expected to pass. Once signed by President Joe Biden, the congressional action will have prevented a U.S. default that could have halted Social Security and veterans’ payments, hiked interest on mortgages and loans and disrupted the global economy.

The Treasury Department predicted that the U.S. would be unable to pay its bills come Wednesday.

Congressional action was the last step in a months-long process aimed at raising the federal borrowing limit.

In October, Republican and Democratic leadership locked horns over the spending cap. Though both parties acknowledged the necessity of raising the debt limit, Republicans argued that Democrats ought to raise the limit on their own — wrongly claiming they needed to offset the cost of Biden’s yet-to-be passed $1.75 trillion social spending bill.

Democrats, who helped raise the debt limit multiple times under the Trump administration, insisted it be a bipartisan effort since the debt limit had to be raised to cover past spending.

The October dispute ended in the GOP blinking, with Republicans giving Democrats the votes necessary for a short-term raise to the debt limit, but vowing they’d be less cooperative in the winter.

Last week, however, party leaders announced an agreement on a two-step process to raise the debt limit. Republicans ultimately provided 10 votes to permit a one-time rule change altering the number of votes necessary to pass the debt-limit hike, and clearing a path for Democrats to pass the legislation without a single GOP backer.

The reached agreement required Democrats to name a specific amount they want to raise the debt limit by. They settled on $2.5 trillion — enough to prevent the government from defaulting through early 2023, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Monday recommended the full chamber hold Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s last White House chief of staff, in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition under subpoena.

After the unanimous committee vote, the full House could hold Meadows in contempt as early as Tuesday.

In the brief session Monday night, the committee blasted Meadows for refusing to appear for a deposition to field questions about some of the more than 9,000 pages of emails and text messages he had previously turned over to the committee.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair of the panel, quoted extensively from text messages sent to Meadows during the riot from Fox News hosts, GOP lawmakers and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.

Cheney said the messages left “no doubt” the White House “knew exactly what was happening” at the Capitol during the riot.

“He’s got to condemn [the riot] ASAP,” Trump Jr. told Meadows in a text message, according to Cheney, saying that Trump’s tweet about Capitol Police “is not enough.”

“I’m pushing it hard,” Meadows replied. “I agree.”

“We need an Oval address,” Trump Jr. said in a follow up message. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

“Please get him on tv,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade wrote to Meadows. “Destroying everything you have accomplished.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read aloud from text messages Meadows received from unnamed GOP lawmakers before and after the riot.

“Yesterday was a terrible day,” one wrote. “We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”

“A day after a failed attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power, an elected lawmaker tells the White House chief of staff, ‘I’m sorry nothing worked.’ That is chilling,” Schiff said. “We would like to ask Mr. Meadows what he thought about that.”

After initially signaling cooperation with the committee, Meadows reversed course and said he would respect Trump’s assertion of privilege even though the Biden White House declined to invoke executive privilege over his testimony.

In a 51-page report released Sunday night, the committee argued that Meadows is “uniquely situated to provide critical information” to its inquiry, given his proximity to Trump before, during and after the presidential election and Jan. 6 Capitol attack, as well as his own extensive involvement in efforts to contest the results.

Meadows, the committee said, played a central role in those challenges, communicating with GOP lawmakers, activists, Trump allies and campaign officials from the west wing, often using a personal email account and a nongovernment cell phone.

Meadows had initially agreed to cooperate with the inquiry, turning over more than 9,000 pages of records to investigators, including text messages with GOP lawmakers and a member of the president’s family during the riot, as well as emails with Justice Department officials encouraging them to investigate claims of voter fraud.

But he changed course before he was scheduled to appear for an in-person deposition on Capitol Hill last month, arguing instead that he would respect Trump’s assertion of privilege even though the Biden White House declined to do so over his testimony.

“To be clear, Mr. Meadows’s failure to comply, and this contempt recommendation, are not based on good-faith disagreements over privilege assertions. Rather, Mr. Meadows has failed to comply and warrants contempt findings because he has wholly refused to appear to provide any testimony and refused to answer questions regarding even clearly non-privileged information—information that he himself has identified as non-privileged through his own document production,” the panel wrote in its report.

In a Monday letter to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, George Terwilliger, an attorney for Mark Meadows, urged the panel and House not to hold Meadows in contempt for refusing to cooperate with a subpoena, saying it would be “unjust.”

“It would ill-serve the country to rush to judgment on the matter,” Terwilliger wrote.

“We recognize and do not dispute that the violence and interference with the processes of our democratic institutions as occurred on January 6, 2021, were deplorable and unjustifiable events,” he wrote. “But the real strength of our democratic institutions comes from the principles that undergird them, and no singular event can justify overrunning centuries-old safeguards of the republic.”

In addition to the records already turned over to investigators, the panel argued that Meadows’s claims were undercut by the fact that he recounted his experience on Jan. 6 in his just-released memoir, The Chief’s Chief.

“He can’t decline to tell the story to Congress and on the very same day publish part of that story in a book to line his pockets,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the committee, said Monday.

“It’s hard to reconcile how he can talk about Jan. 6 and his conversations about it and others for a book but not to Congress,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the commitee, previously told ABC News.

If the Justice Department decides to charge Meadows, he could face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine for refusing to appear before the panel.

Already, the Biden Justice Department has charged Trump adviser Steve Bannon with two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee’s subpoena for records and testimony. His trial is set to begin in July, a federal judge announced last week.

Should the House vote go through, Meadows would become the first former lawmaker to be held in criminal contempt by his former chamber.

In 1832, former Rep. Sam Houston was detained and reprimanded by the House speaker for assaulting a former colleague, under the House’s “inherent contempt” powers.

“Whatever legacy he thought he left in the House, this is his legacy now,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said of Meadows. “His former colleagues singling him out for criminal prosecution because he wouldn’t answer questions about what he knows about a brutal attack on our democracy.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.