During an interview over the weekend on ABC, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) outlined firm commitment on his part to holding former President Donald Trump accountable to the terms of a subpoena the House committee investigating January 6 recently voted to issue.
Subpoenaing Trump in hopes of eventually obtaining his testimony is probably among the most substantive steps the committee could undertake, since it doesn’t have the power of prosecution, although it may issue new criminal referrals before the investigation winds down. Such a step would constitute a formal push for charges. “Well, I mean it was 14 pages of — it seems like every statement the former president does now is increasingly long and even more rambling, so I don’t know,” Kinzinger said, asked about Trump’s initial response to the committee’s subpoena vote. “I couldn’t glean whatever he got from that. What I know is this, is, we made a decision and, in front of the American people, not behind closed doors, to begin the process of subpoenaing the former president. He’s required by law to come in. And he can ramble and push back all he wants. That’s the requirement for a congressional subpoena, to come in.”
Host George Stephanopoulos also asked Kinzinger about the prospect of referring Trump for prosecution on contempt of Congress if he doesn’t comply. Two of those the committee has referred for charges have been hit with indictments, and one — longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon — should receive six months in prison after a conviction at trial of contempt, prosecutors said this week. A trial for the second, Peter Navarro, is scheduled for November.
“That’s a bridge we cross if we have to get there,” Kinzinger said Sunday. “We well recognize the fact that because of the committee only being able to exist to the end of this congressional year, because that was the mandate, we’re at a bit of a time limit here… He’s made it clear he has nothing to hide is what he says. So, he should come in on the day we ask him to come in. If he pushes off beyond that, we’ll figure out what to do next. Granted that this is not an unprecedented move by Congress, but it’s also, we recognize, this is a big deal. This is a big move… This is about the American people, George. Look, what happened on January 6 was terrible. What led up to that and what happened since is what I’m more worried about. And democracies are not defined by those bad days but how we come back from those bad days. This is that process. This is laying out before the American people what happened and determining we can never do this again.”
The committee will be producing a final report. During a hearing this past Thursday where panel members voted in favor of subpoenaing Trump, something for which the paperwork still needed completed, vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) also touted proposed reforms to the process of Congress certifying the presidential election results passed by the House. These measures include dramatically raising the number of members of each chamber of Congress who must agree to an objection to electoral votes before that objection moves to debate and a vote, in addition to limiting the grounds for objections.
