Legislators in the committee are considering whether to call on fellow Republicans for months, battling whether they have the constitutional right to do so, and discussing whether they want to set such a precedent.
And since the hearings remain less than a month away, the committee is facing a ticking clock to get all the information it can.
“The elected committee has learned that several of our colleagues have information related to our investigation into the January 6 attack and the events that led to it,” said commission chairwoman Democratic Representative Benny Thompson of Mississippi. “Before holding the hearings next month, we wanted to give members the opportunity to discuss these issues with the committee on a voluntary basis.”
“Unfortunately, those receiving summonses today have refused and we are forced to take this step to ensure that the commission reveals facts about January 6,” he continued. “We call on our colleagues to abide by the law, to fulfill their patriotic duty and to cooperate in our investigation, as hundreds of other witnesses have done.
The commission has scheduled the deposit of members of Congress for the end of May.
CNN asked the five congressmen for comment.
In an initial letter to McCarthy in January, the group made it clear that it wanted to ask him about his communication with former President Donald Trump, White House officials and others in the week after the January 6 attack, “especially regarding President Trump’s state of mind.” in this time.”
The commission also wanted to know how McCarthy’s public comments since the attack have changed from critical in Trump’s defense over time, and questioned whether Trump pressured him to change his tone when the couple met in late January 2021.
Following the commission’s letter to McCarthy, new audio revealed that in the days following the January 6 uprising, the minority leader was considering asking Trump to resign. Audio also revealed that McCarthy told Republicans during a private conference call that Trump had admitted he was responsible for the deadly attack.
The panel first contacted Jordan, one of Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill, in December to learn more about the communications he had with Trump on Jan. 6 and with Trump’s allies stationed in the military room of the Willard Hotel in the days before. to the attack.
Jordan and Trump spoke on the phone on the morning of January 6, 2021, while Trump was at the White House residence, according to recordings of White House talks held by the panel, first reported by CNN. Ever since Jordan first admitted to talking to Trump on the phone that day, the Ohio Republican and Trump loyalist has rejected questions about it or been inconsistent in his answers.
Jordan was also identified earlier as one of the lawmakers who sent a text message to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, which the commission owns. The announcement that Jordan sent to Meadows on January 5, 2021, outlines a legal theory that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to stand in the way of certification of the 2020 election.
Jordan was elected by McCarthy in July to be one of five Republican members on the committee on Jan. 6, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected McCarthy’s election for Jordan, along with Republican Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, because she said that their appointments could affect the “integrity of the investigation”. Pelosi’s decision prompted McCarthy to withdraw all five members, further exacerbating the desire between the two countries to work together and prompting Pelosi to elect GOP representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kingsinger of Illinois to join the committee.
Perry was the first lawmaker to be asked by the committee to cooperate voluntarily because of the key role he played in trying to help Trump undermine the 2020 election. the role that Perry played at almost every step in plans to reverse or delay the certification of the 2020 elections.
Text messages provided selectively by Meadows to the commission show that Perry insisted that a senior national intelligence official investigate baseless conspiracy theories and worked to replace the acting U.S. Attorney General with an aide ready to carry out Trump’s order.
“From an Intel friend: The DNI must instruct the NSA to seize and immediately seek international Dominion communications,” Perry wrote to Meadows on November 12, 2020, just five days after the Joe Biden election was called.
In a text not previously reported, Perry appears to be urging Meadows to get John Ratcliffe, then director of national intelligence, to order the National Security Agency to investigate denied allegations that Dominion voting machines were hacked by China.
Recent court documents also revealed how Perry played a key role in devising a strategy with Trump’s allies to cast electoral votes in states that Trump lost.
In a statement released in April, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told House investigators about Perry’s role in White House strategic sessions.
“Mr. Perry is the one who immediately comes to mind when I remember being physically there and then backing off,” Hutchinson said, describing how the Pennsylvania Republican clashed with Trump’s White House adviser. whether the state’s plan to present an alternative voter list was legally viable.
A text from November 21, 2020 shows that Meadows even went through Perry to contact local lawmakers in his state.
“Can you send me the number of the spokesman and the leader of the PA legislature. POTUS wants to talk to them, “Meadows wrote to Perry.
The texts also show that Perry acted as a conduit between Meadows and Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, a relatively obscure official who appears to be a central figure in Trump’s election gambit after the former president nearly appointed him acting attorney general. before the uprising in the US Capitol. .
The reports create a direct link between Perry, Clark and Trump’s White House-led efforts to bring in the Justice Department to help cancel the election.
Last year, the Senate highlighted Perry for his role in promoting Trump’s election fraud conspiracies.
The text messages held by the panel reveal that Perry sent an SMS to Meadows several times to request that the call be moved to the Signal encrypted messaging application or to alert Meadows about a message he sent to the encrypted platform.
Such a move could put the exchange out of the reach of the committee, as Signal does not collect or store user data, making it difficult to provide this information to outside entities, including law enforcement and congressional investigators, even on summons.
The panel contacted Biggs earlier this month to discuss his participation in planning meetings at the White House and remotely on “various aspects of Jan. 6 planning.”
When seeking voluntary cooperation from Biggs, the committee said it wanted to know “exactly” what it knew before the Jan. 6 violence, “about the goals, planning and expectations of the Capitol campaign.”
Biggs also spoke to Meadows about efforts to convince US lawmakers that the 2020 election was stolen, and sought their help in trying to cancel the election, according to reports from the commission.
Brooks caught the commission’s attention after revealing that Trump had repeatedly asked him to work for the annulment of the 2020 election and the removal of Biden from office.
This story was updated with additional developments on Thursday.
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