Mark Meadows sues Pelosi and Jan 6 committee members after they say they will ...

Former Trump White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows is suing members of the House Jan. 6 committee and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after it emerged on Wednesday he was no longer cooperating with the investigation.

Hours earlier, the committee signaled it would pursue a criminal contempt case against him. 

In his suit, Meadows accuses the investigators of trying to 'violate' the principle of executive privilege that should protect his communications with Trump.

'After working with them - trying to work with them - it became obvious over the last 72 hours or so that they continued to plan to delve into both executive privilege and some of the deliberative speech that would have occurred as a result of my interactions with the president and other senior staff and so we had to make the tough decision to say that we're gonna no longer cooperate,' Meadows told the Jenna Ellis show.

He said revealing their conversations would set a dangerous precedent. 

It came after the committee investigating the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol building announced it would press ahead with contempt charges if he did not appear at 10am as requested.

'The select committee is left with no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution,' Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote on Tuesday.

Meadows and other key allies of Trump say their communications with Trump are protected because he was president.

'The select committee acts absent any valid legislative power and threatens to violate longstanding principles of executive privilege and immunity that are of constitutional origin and dimension,' his lawyers write in a court filing.

'Without intervention by this court, Mr Meadows faces the harm of both being illegally coerced into violating the Constitution and having a third party involuntarily violate Mr Meadows rights and the requirements of relevant laws governing records of electronic communications.

'Only this court can prevent these grave harms.'  

But among the materials he did turn over is a 38-page PowerPoint presentation titled 'Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN' that was to be provided 'on the hill.'

Thompson's letter reveals that Meadows was exchanging emails about the lengthy presentation up until the day before the Capitol attack. 

The letter to Meadows' lawyer also revealed further bombshell details about communications that the former North Carolina congressman did send over to the committee. 

One of the most damning appears to be a text exchange between Meadows and an unnamed federal lawmaker that took place after the November 2020 election.

The letter refers to a 'November 6, 2020, text exchange with a Member of Congress apparently about appointing alternate electors in certain states as part of a plan that the Member acknowledged would be "highly controversial" and to which Mr. Meadows apparently said, "I love it"...'  

Thompson's letter means the House could set up a vote to refer Meadows to the Justice Department for criminal charges as early as this Friday.  

Meadows is also accused of exchanging text messages with someone about the need for Trump to 'issue a public statement that could have stopped the January 6th attack on the Capitol.' 

The lawmaker-turned-White House official also allegedly spoke via text with an unnamed organizer of the January 6 Stop the Steal rally in 'early January.' 

On November 7, 2020, the letter claims, Meadows sent an email discussing appointing an alternate slate of electors in certain states, likely that voted for Biden, in a 'direct and collateral attack.'

The day before the riot Meadows allegedly sent an email about having the National Guard on standby.

'All of those documents raise issues about which the Select Committee would like to question Mr. Meadows and about which you appear to agree are not subject to a claim of privilege,' Thompson wrote.

Despite the newly-revealed information Thompson stated that there were still more than a thousand items Meadows withheld due to claims of executive privilege.

Meadows is the third person to face a contempt vote in the House in the Democrat-led committee's investigation, after ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.  

Hours earlier on Tuesday, Meadows had announced he would cease compliance with the committee after he and the committee could not come to agreement on the terms of his testimony, according to his attorney.  

Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mo., and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., chided the former Trump official for ending cooperation with them as they say he reveals details about the day in his new book, 'The Chief's Chief.'