The House of Representatives voted to recommend that Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump's White House Chief of Staff, be charged with contempt of Congress, referring the matter to the Justice Department.

The vote was largely along party lines, 222-208, with just two Republicans – Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both members of the Jan. 6 panel – joining every House Democrat in favor of recommending charges for Meadows.

When asked about the vote Wednesday before heading to Kentucky to survey tornado damage, President Joe Biden said that "it seems to me [Meadows is] worthy of being held in contempt."

Ahead of the vote, Cheney, the vice chair of the panel, called the response to the Jan. 6 riot the "moral test of our generation" and chastised her fellow Republicans for their rhetoric about the panel's investigation.

"All of my colleagues, all of them knew that what happened on January 6th was an assault on the Constitution," she said. "They knew it at the time yet now they are defending the indefensible."

Republicans largely slammed the investigation, with Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan calling it "disgusting" that Meadows, who he called a friend, could be held in contempt of Congress, but Cheney rebutted his assertions as "flat false."

"Mr. Meadows served with us for seven years," Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel's chair, said on the House floor. "But that doesn't excuse his conduct. If anything, he should know better."

California Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said that if Meadows "can get away with ignoring the law, if witnesses summoned before Congress can merely pick and choose when they comply, our power of oversight will be gone and along with it our cherished system of checks and balances."

"Meadows has admitted he played both an official and unofficial role in trying to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election," California Rep. Zoe Lofgren said Tuesday. "Now, my colleagues and I on the Select Committee need to speak with him about the full plot leading up to January 6th."

The move comes one day after the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol unanimously voted to recommend contempt charges for Meadows.

The Jan. 6 commission’s Monday night unanimous vote came after the publication of a 51 page report describing and summarizing thousands of pages of emails and text messages.

The commission’s recommendation is now in the hands of the full House, which may then recommend the Justice Department press charges. Under federal code, Meadows could face up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine if charged.

"It's an escalation for sure," Dr. Casey Burgat, director of the legislative affairs program at George Washington University, told Spectrum News.

"It's been about 50 years since the last time someone as high up as the chief of staff was criminally prosecuted," Burgat added, referring to H.R. Haldeman of the Nixon administration. "This is obviously unprecedented in modern politics, which shows that they feel they have enough evidence to go after someone like this."

Meadows, who was the last of President Trump’s chiefs of staff, was subpoenaed on Sept. 23, and has refused to testify despite previous indications he would cooperate.

“Mr. Meadows started by doing the right thing: cooperating,” Rep. Thompson, D-Miss., said in his opening remarks. But when Meadows was due to testify before the panel, “he changed his mid and told us to pound sand. He didn’t even show up.”

"Whatever legacy he thought he left in the House, this is his legacy now," Thompson said of Meadows. "His former colleagues singling him out for criminal prosecution because he wouldn’t answer questions about … a brutal attack on our democracy. That's his legacy."

"If you're listening at home, Mr. Meadows, Mr. Bannon, Mr. Clark, I want you to know this: History will be written about these times, about the work this Committee has undertaken," Thompson added. "And history will not look upon any of you as a martyr."

In return, Meadows has sued the committee, asking the court to invalidate the “overly broad and unduly burdensome” subpoenas, which seek his personal cell phone records.

Meadows could face charges from the DOJ if the House votes in favor of contempt.

"They're likely going to take their time reviewing this case," Dr. Burgat said. "The most likely scenario … is that they reach some sort of agreement where Mark Meadows testifies, whether in a private setting, potentially public, releasing all documents that the DOJ agrees with the select committee that need to be turned over.”

The report published by the Jan. 6 commission provides details of more than 9,000 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and text messages. It describes Meadows’ efforts to help Trump overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, as well as his communications with rally organizers and Congress members on the day of the Jan. 6 attack.

During Monday’s hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., read a selection of text messages to Meadows from the day of the Capitol insurrection — including texts from members of Congress, media personalities and even Donald Trump, Jr., all of whom sought the President’s leadership to calm the violence.

“We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” Cheney said, quoting the former president’s son.

The report also includes communications to Meadows in the days leading up to the insurrection, including one from an unnamed lawmaker telling Meadows that Vice President Mike Pence “should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no votes at all.” (The committee is not identifying lawmakers as the investigation is still ongoing, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said)

In October, the House voted to recommend charges against Steve Bannon. The Justice Department indicted him on two counts of contempt last month.

The committee has already interviewed almost 300 witnesses regarding Jan. 6 in its attempt to construct the most comprehensive possible record of the attack.

“It is clear to any reasonable observer that meadows has treated this committee’s request for relevant information as a game,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.

Murphy noted that, according to documents initially disclosed to the committee by Meadows, the former chief of staff used personal Gmail accounts, personal cell phones and an encrypted messaging app to conduct official business, potentially jeopardizing White House records.

"We will have public hearings. We will tell this story to the American people," Thompson pledged. "But we won’t do it piecemeal: We'll do it when we can tell the story all at once, start to finish."