Mark Meadows now has far worse criminal charges to worry about than contempt

| 8:00 pm EDT June 7, 2022
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The Garland DOJ keeps indicting more people on seditious conspiracy charges, including five Proud Boys leaders on Monday. Seditious conspiracy are very serious and have historically been rarely used, but this DOJ keeps handing them out like candy. If you’re wondering why the DOJ isn’t indicting Mark Meadows on a minor charge like contempt at this time, it’s probably because it wants him for seditious conspiracy instead.

Further, the DOJ’s real goal with Meadows is surely to flip him against Trump, if he hasn’t flipped already. Fifteen years for seditious conspiracy is a lot more persuasive than a year or less for contempt of Congress.

Why not indict Meadows for contempt now, and sedition later? Bannon used his contempt charge to push the courts to force the DOJ to reveal the rest of its case against him. Didn’t work, but could have with the wrong judge. Maybe the DOJ doesn’t want to risk that with Meadows. If the DOJ thinks the contempt charge can stick, it can always bring it later, alongside the more serious charges.

This is, obviously, not how the January 6th Committee would like to see this go down. Its best case scenario would have been if Meadows were indicted for contempt before the public hearings. But while the DOJ has some degree of responsibility to Congress, its primary goal here is to get convictions in a court of law. The best way to get a conviction against Trump is to get Meadows to flip on him. If that’s what the DOJ is pursuing here, and Trump ends up indicted, then all the current controversy over a contempt charge against Meadows will be fully forgotten.