This week, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) — who is chairing the House committee investigating the Capitol riot — announced that new subpoenas could be expected from the panel in the near future, potentially by Friday of this week. The committee has already subpoenaed and gone after high-profile Trump allies like former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark — the latter of whom was slated to testify to the panel this Friday. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who is serving as the vice chair of the committee, has revealed that they’ve already heard from over 150 witnesses.
Thompson did not immediately reveal who would be named in the new subpoenas. Instead, he simply said that “some of the people have been written about. Some of the people haven’t been written about.” In the meantime, the committee is continuing to fight attempts by former President Trump to shield records from his administration from them. Trump has filed a lawsuit to that effect and is challenging the potential release of hundreds of specific pages of materials, but CNN noted how federal Judge Tanya Chutkan seemed inclined towards the release of documents during a hearing this week.
Chutkan “asked Trump’s lawyers why they were arguing that he had the right to stop public access to the records, following the assault on the Capitol,” CNN summarizes. As Chutkan put it, speaking to Trump’s legal team:
‘Are you really saying that the President’s notes, talking points, telephone conversations, on January 6 have no relation to the matter on which Congress is considering legislation? The January 6 riot happened in the Capitol. That is literally Congress’ house.’
Notably, Chutkan has also handled criminal proceedings involving individual defendants who participated in the Capitol riot. Even if she rules in favor of releasing contested records to the riot investigation committee, appeals seem almost certain to follow, which would extend the process. Outside of these contexts, Trump isn’t just continuing to promote the lie that last year’s presidential election was somehow rigged for Biden — he’s also actively excusing what went on at the Capitol. In a recent public statement, Trump said in reference to his false claims of election fraud that the real “insurrection” took place on Election Day, with January 6 merely a “protest.”
