According to a new report from The Guardian, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot is “considering issuing a blitz of subpoenas for top Trump White House aides,” including former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Other targets would be former deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino and former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, and the subpoenas “are expected to be authorized as early as this week,” The Guardian explains, adding that they’re anticipated to be targeted at testimony from or communication records of each of the Trump allies.
As summarized by The Guardian, “Trump officials such as Meadows, Scavino and Parscale played a major part in advancing baseless and disproven lies about a stolen 2020 election” that inspired the riot. Meadows even went down to Georgia at one point, stopping by the site of an audit of mail-in ballot signatures in Cobb County — an effort which eventually concluded with no signs of systematic election fraud like Trump and certain allies of his claimed was present. For a top official in the White House to suddenly show up at the location of an election-related audit certainly suggests an element of corrupt political pressure on local officials, however. Trump made that pressure explicit in a phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), with whom he pleaded to “find” enough votes to flip the state from Biden.
The riot investigation committee has already gone after troves of other documents, including Trump White House records held by government agencies. For instance, the panel asked the National Archives to provide “all documents and communications within the White House” related to Trump allies including Rudy Giuliani, who has been a prominent proponent of lies about the integrity of last year’s presidential election. The committee also asked the Defense Department for “[all] documents and communications concerning possible attempts by President Donald Trump to remain in office after January 20, 2021.” Members of the committee have indicated that the panel has already received significant caches of materials in response to their requests.
Going forward, the riot investigation committee “is also in the process of scheduling closed-door depositions with key persons of interest included in and beyond the subpoenas,” according to The Guardian’s reporting. The committee also held a public hearing in July featuring the testimony of four local officers who participated in the defense of the Capitol and faced down the Trump-inspired violence, and the next public hearing may take place in October, The Guardian says.
