A former high-ranking official in the Trump White House who worked on communications has been asked to testify by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, reporter Maggie Haberman says. The official in question is Jalen Drummond, who was an assistant press secretary in the White House at the time of the attack on the Capitol by the then-president’s supporters. According to Haberman, Drummond was among those present for a meeting between Trump and staff members on the night before January 6, meaning that he could potentially help sketch out the then-president’s state of mind heading into the attack. Whether or not violence was essentially counted upon in Trump’s inner circles heading into January 6 has been among the questions under investigation, per committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
JALEN DRUMMOND, former WH assistant press secretary under Trump and last remaining Black staffer in Trump West Wing, has been asked to voluntarily testify to Jan 6 committee, per a person familiar w the request. He was present at a meeting w Trump+staff on evening of Jan. 5.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 21, 2022
There doesn’t appear to have been any official announcement from the riot panel about their reported request for Drummond’s testimony, although the committee has confirmed that they’ve heard from over 550 individuals and counting as their investigation has moved forward. Official announcements from the committee have focused on subpoenas; the full list of names of those who have provided information to investigators — or at least met with them — is not publicly known. In the near future, however, the committee is planning to host public hearings to essentially lay out the case for the American people. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the committee, recently described those hearings as meant to “demonstrate… [that] no foreign power corrupted America’s voting machines, and no massive secret fraud changed the election outcome.” She added that investigators are “focused on facts, not rhetoric, and we will present those facts without exaggeration, no matter what criticism we face.”
NBC's Pete Williams: The Supreme Court has formally rejected Trump's appeal to stop the National Archives from handing over documents to the Jan. 6 Committee.
In the final chapter, Trump's appeal was rejected with no noted dissents. @NBCNews— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 22, 2022
Records associated with Drummond’s former boss, then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, have been among those sought by committee investigators. Specifically, former President Trump tried to block the investigative panel from obtaining records including potential talking points for McEnany, and the federal judiciary — up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court, where three of Trump’s own picks currently serve — denied his ambition. This week, the Supreme Court formally declined to hear Trump’s appeal of a lower court ruling against his attempt to keep administration records hidden, but the Supreme Court had already declined to take the emergency action that the former president requested, and investigators already received records from Trump’s time in office. Some of these were torn up, adding to concerns about the ex-president and his team’s handling of government records, many of which are mandated to be preserved and given to the National Archives when an administration ends.
AG GARLAND confirms the National Archives has informed DOJ that it found classified information in document the say Trump took to Mar-a-Lago.
Garland: "We will do what we always do under these circumstance: look at the facts of the law and take it from there."
— Rob Legare (@RobLegare) February 22, 2022
