Kelly Meggs, an accused leader of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers, is suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an attempt to block the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot from obtaining certain phone records.
The panel subpoenaed Verizon to turn over all call and text message records related to the cell phones of Kelly Meggs' wife, Connie Meggs, from November 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021. In a lawsuit filed on Monday, Connie Meggs argued the subpoena violated her constitutional right to a fair trial by tainting the jury pool and breaching marital communications privilege since conversations she had with her husband would be uncovered.
Kelly and Connie Meggs are accused of conspiring to block the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. During the Capitol riot from nearly a year ago, Kelly Meggs was allegedly "searching for" Pelosi, according to court records obtained by Newsweek.
On the evening of January 6, 2021, a person sent a message to Kelly Meggs saying he was "hoping to see Nancy's head rolling down the front steps." Kelly Meggs responded that "we looked forward to," a message Judge Amit Mehta deemed "almost certainly" a typo and was intended to be "looked for" Pelosi.
Newsweek reached out to Pelosi for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Connie Meggs allegedly participated in the "stack" of people who moved up the Capitol steps toward the building. Prosecutors claimed this "stack," which involved multiple defendants moving in a line with their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them, is evidence of a coordinated attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.
The Meggs are two of nearly 20 defendants charged with conspiracy, the most severe charge any of the alleged rioters face. The couple's lawsuit accused the January 6 committee's subpoena of being overly broad and involving "clearly irrelevant time periods."
It's an argument that Donald Trump used in his attempt to block records from being turned over to the committee, which has sought documents from the former president dating back to April 2020. While Douglas Letter, general counsel for the House of Representatives, acknowledged that records may not yield any information, he argued they were necessary to determine the "atmosphere" that led to the Capitol riot.
Since Connie and Kelly Meggs are on a family phone plan, they argued in their lawsuit that the subpoena violated their marital communications privilege and could breach the privacy rights of those who are associated with the account. The lawsuit also alleged the subpoena is an invasion of privacy that's "worse than what occurred under the British Crown."
The couple's lawsuit also claimed that the January 6 probe could hinder Connie Meggs' ability to get a fair criminal trial. With the Capitol rioters characterized as "terrorists" by the House select committee, the Meggs' lawsuit alleged that the committee is creating prejudice among the jury pool.
Invoking another one of Trump's arguments, the Meggs took issue with the committee being "partisan" because it only includes two Republicans, Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Both were censured in their home districts for voting to impeach Trump.
If the subpoena is allowed to continue, the Meggs argued that it would be a "massive chilling of current and future activists' associational and free speech rights." They questioned what would happen if Republicans sought the records of Black Lives Matter activists.
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