Mark Meadows is suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
The lawsuit, filed in D.C. federal court Wednesday, comes after the panel said it had "no choice" but to move forward with recommending criminal contempt of Congress proceedings against the subpoenaed former Trump White House chief of staff after he changed course and said he would no longer cooperate with its investigation.
Meadows is asking for the court to invalidate two subpoenas the committee issued against him.
MARK MEADOWS GAVE 'REAL-TIME COMMUNICATIONS' DURING JAN. 6 RIOT TO HOUSE INVESTIGATORS
"Mr. Meadows, a witness, has been put in the untenable position of choosing between conflicting privilege claims ... and having to either risk enforcement of the subpoena issued to him ... or, alternatively, unilaterally abandoning the former president’s claims of privileges," the complaint says.
Meadows, himself a former congressman, said he needs a court to determine what the law is in this case. He said he tried to accommodate the committee "in good faith."
“Mr. Meadows’s flawed lawsuit won’t succeed at slowing down the Select Committee’s investigation or stopping us from getting the information we’re seeking. The Select Committee will meet next week to advance a report recommending that the House cite Mr. Meadows for contempt of Congress and refer him to the Department of Justice for prosecution," Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney said in a joint statement Wednesday evening.
Meadows initially agreed to appear for a deposition before the committee Wednesday but then backed out of it citing concerns that the panel tried to obtain privileged information, including his cellphone records.
Former President Donald Trump urged aides from his administration not to comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoenas and claimed executive privilege. President Joe Biden has waived the claim of executive privilege on Jan. 6 records, and the matter is playing out in court.
Meadows said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News that he tried to provide the committee with different options to answer their questions while still complying with Trump's wishes.
He also said he was not aware of anyone in the White House that had advanced knowledge that "security was going to be breached at the Capitol."
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Meadows has already sent the committee over 6,000 pages of documents, a source told CNN.
"Even as we litigate privilege issues, the Select Committee has numerous questions for Mr. Meadows about records he has turned over to the Committee with no claim of privilege, which include real-time communications with many individuals as the events of January 6th unfolded. We also need to hear from him about voluminous official records stored in his personal phone and email accounts, which were required to be turned over to the National Archives in accordance with the Presidential Records Act," Thompson and Cheney said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who also resisted a Jan. 6 committee subpoena, is already facing contempt of Congress charges. A federal judge set July 18 as a tentative date for the trial.