US lawmakers voted on Tuesday to recommend criminal contempt charges against Donald Trump's former top aide Mark Meadows for refusing to testify before the congressional panel investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol.

The rebuke from the House of Representatives moves the ultra-conservative ex-congressman a step closer to becoming the first White House chief of staff to be prosecuted after leaving the post since H.R. Haldeman in the Watergate scandal nearly 50 years ago.

"We've given Mark Meadows every opportunity to cooperate. He's brought this situation on himself," the House January 6 select committee said in a statement ahead of the vote, which went roughly along party lines, with just two Republicans joining every Democrat to hold Meadows in contempt.

The panel is investigating Mr Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in the November 2020 election in the run-up to the Capitol riot - as well as the help he got from Mr Meadows and others.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/15/us-house-holds-former-president-donald-trumps-chief-mark-meadows/

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