WASHINGTON – The House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot formally issued a subpoena to former President Trump Friday, eight days after voting unanimously to do so at their most recent public meeting.
The 10-page document claims Trump “personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”
“[Trump] summon[ed] tens of thousands of supporters to Washington and, knowing they were angry and some were armed, sen[t] them to the Capitol,” the committee alleges.
The subpoena is likely to kick off weeks of additional legal wrangling involving the 45th president, who is already embroiled in a court fight with the Justice Department over classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort in August.
Friday’s subpoena orders Trump to produce all “relevant documentary material” by Nov. 4 and to participate in “one or more days of deposition testimony” starting on Nov. 14 “and continuing on subsequent days as necessary.”
It also accuses the former president of having “purposely and deliberately” disseminated false allegations, pushing the Justice Department to make false statements, pressuring state officials to change the election results and overseeing efforts to submit “false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives.”
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. REUTERS/Gaelen MorseThe nine-member panel also took aim at Trump’s efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the Electoral College results during the Jan. 6, 2021 congressional session “despite knowing specifically that it was illegal.”
An initial report by Fox News indicated that the former president “loves the idea of testifying” before the committee, but Trump has already hired the Dhillon Law Group to handle his engagements with the panel regarding the riots, Politico reported Thursday.
The order to testify comes at a precarious moment for the former president, as he is already embroiled in other civil and criminal legal battles including with New York state Attorney General Letitia James and the ongoing probe into his post-presidential handling of government records.
To that end, the committee asked Trump to “promptly” notify them if he intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but reminded the former president of a DC Circuit Court ruling last year that found the committee has a “‘uniquely compelling need’ for the requested information.”
Former President Trump is seen on a screen as his supporters cheer during a rally on the National Mall on January 6, 2021, prior to the Capitol Riot. Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images“We recognize that the Supreme Court has ruled that former Presidents retain the limited ability to assert executive privilege, but any such privilege is qualified,” the committee wrote.
The testimony will occur either at the Capitol building or by video conference, according to the document.
The documents the panel subpoenaed include all communications Trump sent on Jan. 6, as well as all missives to members of Congress sent between Dec. 18, 2020 and Jan. 6 “relating or referring in any way to the 2020 presidential election.”
The committee also requested all photographs and video captured Jan. 6 related to the day’s events — including Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse, the congressional joint session or the riot.
The January 6 committee has subpoenaed former President Trump to speak. Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty ImagesAdditionally, it calls for all documents created between Nov. 3 and Jan. 6 “memorializing” discussions Trump held that referred to the Jan. 6 joint Congressional session and riot, including all mentions of Pence.
The subpoena also takes aim at the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys militia groups, calling for Trump to turn over all communications relating to the groups or its members sent between Sept. 1, 2020 to now.
The committee acknowledged that it was taking a “significant and historic action,” as Trump is just the fourth former president to be subpoenaed by a congressional panel, joining Harry Truman, John Tyler and John Quincy Adams.
Pro-Trump supporters clash with law enforcement during the Capitol Riot on January 6, 2021. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images“We do not take this action lightly, but as you likely know, you would not be the first former president to testify before Congress or receive and congressional subpoena,” the committee said.
Other presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Herber Hoover and Gerald Ford, have also testified before Congress, but did not require a subpoena to do so, according to the panel.
Trump had not issued a public comment about the committee as of Friday afternoon.
