The House votes to hold Trumps’s ex-chief of staff in contempt for staying mum on riot at Capitol

Donald Trump’s postpresidential wall began to crumble Tuesday night after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to hold his former White House chief of staff in contempt for refusing to answer questions about his role in the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.

Though it was top aide Mark Meadows who received the congressional crackdown, there was no mistaking that lawmakers were sending a direct message to the former president, warning him they intend to get to the bottom of the violent insurrection that shamed the nation — and his apparent role in the melee.

The contempt charge against Meadows (photo), who refused to cooperate with the congressional probe, means the Trump loyalist could face criminal charges for trying to protect his former boss. The final late night vote was 222 to 208 voting in favor of contempt, including two Republicans who crossed party lines to hold Meadows accountable.

“History will be written about these times, about the work this committee has undertaken,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (R-Miss.), the chairman of the probe committee. “And history will not look upon any of you as a martyr. History will not look upon you as a victim.”

Prior to the vote, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), called the Jan. 6 insurrection “without precedence.”

“There has been no stronger case in our nation’s history for a congressional investigation into the actions of a former president,” said Cheney, the vice chair of the House committee investigating the uprising.

Meadows’ name surfaced again in the hours before the vote when Cheney and Thompson insisted that Meadows knows more than perhaps anyone else why Trump did nothing in the face of the violent attack.

To make their point, the panel revealed text messages from elected officials and people within Trump’s inner circle urging Meadows to persuade the then-president to tell his supporters to stand down.

One of the frantic text messages came from Trump’s own son, Donald Trump Jr., who told Meadows that his father needed to “condemn this s—t ASAP.”

There were other messages from lawmakers, who have not yet been named, along with Fox

News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

The leaders said Meadows’ refusal to testify would prevent the panel from finding out what Trump did to bully officials into overturning his loss in several key swing states.

“Why would all these people text the president of the United States and say: ‘You have to stop these people?’” Thompson said. “There’s some connection between those individuals doing the texts and who they’re doing it to.”

Meadows handed over the text messages to the panel, then refused to talk to the committee.

But Meadows, a former member of Congress, has said the panel has used the messages to twist the truth.

“They tried to weaponize text messages and selectively leak them to put out a narrative that, quite frankly, the president didn’t act,” Meadows told Newsmax a day before the House vote. “And I can tell you ... the president did act.”

But time lines show that Trump urged supporters at 1:10 p.m. to march on the Capitol. It wasn’t until 4:17 p.m. — 187 minutes later — that Trump told them to break it up.

“So, go home,” Trump finally said. “We love you. You’re very special.”

Hours earlier, on the day the Senate was meeting to certify the Electoral College vote, protesters egged on by the sore-losing Trump resorted to anarchy to disrupt the process.

Shots were fired in the Capitol, where elected officials were huddled under their desks. Insurgents were walking door to door shouting, “Where the f—k are they,” and “Trump won that election.”

The contempt charge goes to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who will have to decide whether to prosecute Meadows.