The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has issued six new subpoenas to top allies of former President Donald Trump. Although select individuals who’ve already been subpoenaed, such as former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have resisted the panel’s demands for testimony — at their own legal peril — the committee has nonetheless heard from over 150 witnesses already, per vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). The full list of those who’ve already spoken to the committee wasn’t immediately clear, but what is clear is that the investigation is proceeding whether Trump likes it or not.
The newly subpoenaed individuals include both persons who are well-known and those who are less so. The list features former Trump campaign manager William “Bill” Stepien, former Trump advisers Jason Miller and Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign official Angela McCallum, pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman, and prominent Trump ally Bernard Kerik. The involvement that these individuals had in the events under investigation by the committee varies from Flynn’s attendance at a White House meeting that included topics like seizing election machines to Eastman’s promotion to state legislators of what he falsely characterized as “the duty of the[] legislatures to fix this, this egregious conduct, and make sure that we’re not putting in the White House some guy that didn’t get elected.”
These six individuals include staff members of the former President’s campaign and individuals associated with the so-called “war room” that drove efforts to halt the counting of electoral votes in the runup to the violence of January 6th.
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— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) November 8, 2021
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the riot investigation committee, commented as follows:
‘In the days before the January 6th attack, the former President’s closest allies and advisors drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes. The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all. The Select Committee expects all witnesses to cooperate with our investigation as we work to get answers for the American people, recommend changes to our laws that will strengthen our democracy, and help ensure nothing like January 6th ever happens again.’
The full House has already approved a finding of contempt against Bannon over his refusal to comply with the riot investigation committee’s subpoena, referring the matter to the Justice Department for his potential prosecution. As for those newly put under subpoena by the panel, their connections to the events of January 6 also include Kerik’s financing of space at D.C.’s Willard Hotel that was used by Trump allies for contemplating next steps. It’s there that a January 5 meeting took place where participants “discussed options for overturning the results of the November 2020 election by, among other things, pressuring Vice President Pence to not certify the electoral college results,” as a press release from the panel explains. Bannon, who was at that meeting, said on January 5 that “all hell” would “break loose” the next day. What did he know about the potential of and plans for violence?
