The Select Committee has interviewed 200 witnesses thus far, and most of them have been members of Donald Trump’s administration. Only a few have chosen to ignore their subpoenas. Many needed none at all.
Lofgren was one of Trump’s impeachment managers. She sat down with CNN’s Jim Acosta to talk about what the Select Committee has been doing. She mentioned that there were some who requested a subpoena for “cover,” so they could give depositions. And there were those who came knocking on their door without even being asked.
The purpose of the Select Committee has been to investigate the January 6 attempted coup by Donald Trump and his minions so that it can never happen again. Its member have been especially interested in discovering who and what went into the planning that led up to that horrific day.
Of course, Lofgren maintained the confidentially to protect witnesses who testified behind closed doors. However, Lofgren did say that the Select Committee testimony had provided them with “important insights.” Additionally, the witnesses’ statements led the Committee’s members to other lines of questioning.
The non-nonsense representative told Acosta:
‘Let me not be that specific, but let me say certainly there have been people, part of the Trump administration, who have spoken to us and provided important insights that have led us to further questions.’
Acosta questioned her about who had already testified for the Select Committee. He wondered about the breakdown of the witnesses. How many worked in the White House? How many were involved in either Trump or Vice President Mike Pence’s campaign?
Lofgren said that the committee is interested in learning whether Meadows used a private cell phone on January 6 to speak with others, and if so, where those records? She said:
‘We would like to know about his use of a private cell phone and what happened to that cell phone and whether those records have been captured by the National Archives as the law requires.’Â
The California representative said that they were concerned about what Donald Trump’s officials were doing the days before and the hours prior to the attack on our Capitol Building took place. They also want to know what the ex-president had been doing during the attack. There have been reports that he watched it on television, virtually cheering on “his people.”
A number of people from inside the Capitol Building and even others less involved had been phoning Trump desperately urging him to “call off” the attackers. There were also those who were in the White House as Trump was glued to the TV trying to get him to stop it. The ex-president ignored them and let the medieval combat with Capitol and metropolitan police go on for hours.
The Select Committee served one of the people Trump pardoned, former adviser Steve Bannon, a subpoena which he blatantly ignored. A federal grand jury indicted Bannon on two charges of contempt of Congress for failing to honor his subpoena, each carrying a prison sentence and a large fine. Instead, the man who wears three shirts let the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrest him and made a public relations spectacle of it all.
And of course, there was Trump’s last Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows who did not appear for his deposition. Apparently, he considered the subpoena null, because he believed he could claim executive privilege.
Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MI) and ranking member Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) released a joint statement about Meadows, according to NBC News. They called his “claims of privilege” speech with the president invalid:
‘Mr. Meadows’s actions today—choosing to defy the law—will force the Select Committee to consider pursuing contempt or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena. [Meadows] failed to answer even the most basic questions.’
It seems that a minimum of five people in Trump’s administration testified, according to CNN. One of those providing important information was Trump’s Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President, Alyssa Farah.
Lofgren added that the Select Committee had already received 25,000 documents and over 200 tips that came in via the Committee’s tip line.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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