The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot subpoenaed former President Donald Trump on Friday for testimony and documents on his actions surrounding the bloodshed they say he instigated at the U.S. Capitol.
The subpoena calls for Trump to testify on Nov. 14 — after the midterm elections.
“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee’s leaders told Trump in a letter being sent with the subpoena.
The “multi-part effort” included “maliciously disseminating false allegations” of voter fraud in the 2020 election, attempting to “corrupt the Department of Justice” to get it to bolster those claims, “illegally pressuring state officials and legislatures to change the results of the election in their states,” and “corruptly pressuring your own vice president to unilaterally refuse to count electoral votes” on Jan. 6, panel Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., wrote.
The committee told Trump it wants to ask him about conversations he had with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, longtime confidante Roger Stone, attorney John Eastman and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark — all of whom invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when they were interviewed by panel.
It also demands that Trump turn over a number of documents by Nov. 4 — including any communications he had regarding extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, that were involved in the riot.
The panel voted unanimously to subpoena Trump last week following a dramatic hearing that spotlighted the former president’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results and spurring the deadly riot.
Cheney described Trump as the riot’s “central player” at the hearing, while Thompson said the panel had an “obligation” to get answers directly from the former president.
“He must be accountable,” Thompson said. “He is required to answer for his actions. He’s required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He’s required to answer to those millions of Americans whose votes he wanted to throw out as part of his scheme to remain in power.”
Trump responded with a 14-page letter last Friday in which he vented his “anger, disappointment, and complaint” at the panel for not investigating his baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election, but did not directly say whether he plans on challenging the subpoena.
Any legal challenge would likely give Trump time to run out the clock on the subpoena, which will expire at the end of this congressional term in January.
Asked after the hearing if the committee was prepared to fight over a subpoena in court, Thompson said, “Let’s see what happens.”
“We hope that he honors it,” he added.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
