According to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairperson of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, an initial round of subpoenas from that committee should be emerging “soon.” Like other Congressional committees, the panel investigating the riot has the power to issue subpoenas, thereby potentially forcing the testimony before the committee of certain individuals and the transfer to members of certain documents. It’s not quite clear yet who — or what — might get subpoenaed, although there’s been talk of potentially seeking testimony from members of Congress who spoke to former President Trump at some point around the events of January 6, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Thompson has also revealed that the riot investigation committee intends to get in touch with Attorney General Merrick Garland about possibly obtaining materials that are part of criminal prosecutions against individuals who were involved in the riot. So far, well over 530 people have been criminally charged for their role in what happened, and most cases remain ongoing. As Thompson put it, discussing obtaining certain information from the Justice Department:
‘We plan to eventually have a conversation with the attorney general about some of the ground rules for that. We think it’s important that the committee have any and all access to that information and some information as it relates to some of the prosecutions that are ongoing — without interrupting it… But we think there should be information that they’ve been able to uncover that our committee can have access to.’
As for Trump himself, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — one of just two Republicans on the House’s riot investigation committee — has already talked about finding out exactly what was going on at the White House on the day that the riot took place. As Cheney put it, investigators “must” uncover “what happened every minute of that day in the White House — every phone call, every conversation, every meeting — leading up to, during, and after the attack.” For awhile, Trump stayed relatively quiet regarding what was happening, and then, alongside other comments, he explicitly sought to justify what took place. Trump wrote on his since-banned Twitter account that “these are the things and events that happen” when an election is stolen — although, of course, such a theft of the election did not actually take place.
