WASHINGTON – A House of Representatives election commission investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol issued summons Thursday to House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republicans in the House of Representatives, a significant escalation in its efforts to received information from Republican lawmakers as part of the investigation.
In addition to McCarthy, the committee called Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona to testify. The commission’s request is likely to spark a lawsuit, as others who have been called to testify before lawmakers, such as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have sued to challenge subpoenas issued by chamber investigators.
Commission chairwoman Benny Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said Republican lawmakers had information about her investigation and the commission was forced to issue subpoenas after rejecting the possibility of volunteering.
“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 said,” he said in a statement.
If the five Republicans oppose the summons, Thompson said the commission could recommend allegations of disrespect, as it did for others, although members did not discuss the move. The panel could also refer the House of Representatives’ ethics committee or explore other civic options, he said, adding that the committee was “taking it step by step” and hoped lawmakers would comply with their appeals.
President Trump spoke when he joined House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the White House Rose Garden on January 4, 2019. Getty Images
The panel asked Republicans to cooperate voluntarily in investigating the January 6 riots, but they declined to provide information to their members. Brooks, who spoke at a rally in front of the White House hours before the Capitol attack, said earlier this month that although he had testified voluntarily at some point in the past, he would only do so if summoned and vowed to fight request.
Although the selected committee has issued summonses for McCarthy, Jordan, Brooks, Perry and Biggs, it has also asked GOP spokesman Ronnie Jackson to participate in voluntary meetings with investigators. It is unclear whether the commission will call Jackson in the future.
The panel told Jordan and Brooks in previous requests for information that they would like to discuss talks they had with former President Donald Trump on his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Investigators say Perry played an “important role “in efforts to install former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general and found that the Pennsylvania Republican had communicated with Meadows about Clark via text messages and Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
The committee believes Biggs attended meetings at the White House and remotely on Jan. 6 planning, including on a strategy for Vice President Mike Pence to reject votes in key elections on the battlefield that Trump lost in the 2020 presidential election. The panel also said it had learned that Biggs was involved in plans to bring protesters to Washington on Jan. 6 as lawmakers gather for a joint session to count the votes in the state election and confirm President Biden’s victory. There is also information about Biggs’ alleged efforts to convince government officials that the 2020 election was stolen and to seek their help in Trump’s efforts to undo the results, and former White House officials have identified Biggs as potentially involved in the search effort. of pardoning the president for activities related to Trump’s campaign to reverse the election result.
The panel said McCarthy was in contact with Trump “before, during and after” Jan. 6 and asked for information about his talks with fellow lawmakers in the days after the Jan. 6 attack. In a conference call with Republican leaders, McCarthy said the then-president had admitted he was partly to blame for the attack, according to a recent audio report.
“He told me he had some responsibility for what happened. And he has to admit that,” the senior Republican in the House of Representatives said.
McCarthy said in another call that he was considering asking Trump to resign.
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass and my recommendation is that you resign,” he told Representative Liz Cheney in an interview on January 10, 2021, citing an impeachment resolution. composed of the Democrats in the House. Cheney was one of two Republicans on the committee on Jan. 6 and is vice chairman.
At the Capitol on Thursday, Cheney said the decision to summon members of Congress was “a reflection of how important and serious the investigation is and how severe the attack on the Capitol is.”
“We asked these five people to come in and talk to us, and they refused and have an obligation,” said the Wyoming Republican. “They have extremely important information about the attack that we need for the investigation.”
For weeks, the committee has been signaling that it could issue subpoenas if congressmen do not voluntarily comply with their demands. Illinois spokesman Adam Kinsinger, the other Republican in the group, told Face the Nation earlier this month that the committee “ultimately [do] what we can do to get this information “from members.
“We have requested information from various members. As to whether we will proceed with the summons, [that] “It will be both a strategic and a tactical decision and a question of whether, you know, we can do that and get the information in time,” Kinzinger said in an interview on May 1.
Kinzinger said on Thursday that committee members were “well aware” of the “impact” of summoning members of Congress, but “what happened on January 6 was unprecedented.”
McCarthy, Perry and Brooks said they had not yet received the summons before the commission announced them, but condemned the proceedings led by their colleagues.
Perry told reporters that the demands were “all to distract America from their horrific attempt to push America”, while McCarthy said the commission “is not conducting a legal investigation”. Brooks said in a statement that his compliance depended on several factors, including whether his testimony would be made public, whether questions would be limited to events related to the Jan. 6 attack, and who would question him. The Alabama Republican also said he plans to consult with other Republicans the commission wants to remove.
In the course of the investigation into the January 6 uprising and the events surrounding it, the commission issued more than 90 summonses to a wide range of former White House associates, Trump allies, former campaign workers, and organizers of rallies protesting the 2020 election results. and far-right extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
A number of future witnesses have tried unsuccessfully to overturn subpoenas in federal court. Most recently, a U.S. district judge in Washington rejected an attempt by the Republican National Committee to block a subpoena from the chosen committee to its fundraising provider by email, finding that the committee was seeking information related to the investigation.
The House also voted to keep Meadows and former White House senior officials Dan Scavino, Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon in disrespect for Congress after failing to comply with the summons. Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury in November for refusing to testify and hand over documents and pleaded not guilty.
Meanwhile, some members of the Trump family have spoken with House of Representatives investigators, including Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Much of the committee’s work so far has been conducted behind closed doors, with MPs and officials conducting more than 900 interviews and testimonies and receiving more than 100,000 documents in the course of the investigation. But the commission’s January 6th hearing of the attack will enter its public phase next month, with a series of eight hearings beginning on June 9th.
Zack Hudak and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.
Attack on the US Capitol
More more
Add Comment