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The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has issued its first subpoenas, demanding records and testimony from four of former President Donald Trump’s close advisers and associates, including those who were in contact with him before the attack or on the day of it.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) announced the subpoenas of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
Chairman Thompson wrote to the four that the committee was investigating “the facts, circumstances, and causes” of the attack and asked them to produce documents and appear at depositions in mid-October.
The panel, formed over the summer, is now launching the interview phase of its investigation after sorting through thousands of pages of documents it requested in August from federal agencies and social media companies.
The committee has also requested a trove of records from the White House.
In a statement, Trump asserted that “we will fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege” and suggested that the panel should call witnesses to testify about the “Rigged Presidential Election of 2020.”
Though Trump has signaled his refusal to hand over any details to Congress, he doesn’t necessarily have the final word now that he’s out of office. According to an executive order on presidential records, the archivist in possession of the records “shall abide by any instructions given him by the incumbent President or his designee unless otherwise directed by a final court order.”
The White House has indicated it is inclined to release as many of the documents as possible. Still, officials aren’t ruling out that there could be individual records Biden may deem privileged.
In letters to each of the witnesses, Thompson says that investigators believe they have relevant information about the lead-up to the insurrection. For instance, in the case of Bannon, Democrats cite his Jan. 5 prediction that ”(a)ll hell is going to break loose tomorrow” and his communications with Trump one week before the riot in which he urged the president to focus his attention on January 6.
