WASHINGTON – A House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol issued summons Thursday to five Republicans in Congress, including Kevin McCarthy, a minority leader who declined to meet with the committee voluntarily.
The heads of the committee are reluctant to issue summonses to their fellow deputies. This is an extremely rare step that most congressional committees must take, although it is well known that the House Ethics Committee, which is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct by members, does.
The panel said it required documents and testimony from Mr. McCarthy of California, who was engaged in a heated telephone conversation with President Donald J. Trump during the Capitol violence; Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry, who is coordinating a plan to try to replace the current Attorney General after he countered Mr Trump’s false allegations of widespread fraud; Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who was deeply involved in the fight against the election results; Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, a former leader of the House’s ultra-conservative freedom faction; and Alabama spokesman Mo Brooks, who said Mr Trump had been seeking an illegal reinstatement for more than a year.
All five have refused requests for voluntary interviews about the roles they played in the aggregation of the attack by supporters of the former president, who believe his lie about widespread election fraud.
Mr McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday that he had not yet seen the summons.
“My view of the commission has not changed,” he said. “They are not conducting a legal investigation. It seems that they just want to persecute their political opponents. “
Mr Perry called the Democrats’ investigation a “charade” and a “political witch hunt” to “invent headlines and distract Americans from their horrific attempt to push America to the ground”.
The summonses come as the committee prepares a series of public hearings next month to reveal its findings. The eight hearings are scheduled to take place over several weeks, starting on June 9, some in prime time in an attempt to attract a large television audience.
“The selection 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 Benny Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the committee, in a statement. “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, the people receiving the summons today refused, and we are forced to take this step to ensure that the committee reveals the facts about January 6. “
For weeks, members and investigators of the House committee’s special committee have lamented how aggressively they can harass congressional members, weighing their desire for information on lawmakers’ direct interactions with Mr. Trump against potential legal difficulties and political implications. .
Behind closed doors, committee members and officials scrutinized the law, parliamentary rules and past precedents before deciding to continue, said those familiar with the investigation.
In letters to lawmakers sent Thursday, Mr Thompson wrote that their refusal to cooperate had left the committee “without a choice” but to issue summonses.
Representative Jamie Ruskin, a Democrat from Maryland and a member of the committee, said the group had conducted more than 1,000 interviews, but had to hear those members of Congress who were so closely involved in the former president’s plans.
“The precedent we want to set with our work is for people not to try to overturn the electoral and political institutions of the United States,” he said.
Mr McCarthy’s appeal is particularly remarkable because he is on track to become a spokesman if Republicans gain control of the House in November. If he refuses to comply, it could trigger a process that could lead to a Democratic-controlled House holding him in disrespect for Congress as the midterm elections approach.
Congressional investigators have seldom encountered a situation that carries such huge stakes for their institution.
Mr McCarthy has long feared being summoned to the investigation. In recent months, he has been discussing with William A. Burke, a longtime lawyer in Washington, how to fight a subpoena.
The commission wants to question Mr McCarthy about the talks he has had since the attack on the president’s guilt over the attack and what needs to be done to deal with it. The Committee also suggests that Mr Trump may have influenced Mr McCarthy’s refusal to co-operate in the investigation.
In January, Mr McCarthy issued a scathing statement condemning the commission as illegitimate and saying he would refuse to co-operate in its investigation. He claims the commission violates Republican confidentiality through subpoenas for bank and phone records. Mr McCarthy also condemned California President Nancy Pelosi for rejecting two of his five choices to sit on the committee, one of which was Mr Jordan.
In December, the commission informed Mr Jordan in a letter that its investigators wanted to question him about his reports of the Capitol riot. These include Mr Jordan’s communications with Mr Trump and his legal team, as well as others involved in planning the January 6 rallies and Congress’ objections to attesting to the victory of Joseph R. Biden Jr..
In the weeks following the 2020 elections, Mr Perry, a 2013 congressman close to Mr Jordan, compiled a dossier alleging voter fraud and coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting Attorney General, who resisted Mr. Jordan. Trump’s attempts to cancel the election with a more lenient employee. Mr Perry also supported the idea of encouraging Mr Trump’s supporters to march to the Capitol on 6 January 2021.
In a letter to Mr. Biggs, committee leaders wrote that they wanted to question him for evidence they had received about efforts by some Republicans in the House of Representatives to seek pardon for the president after Jan. 6 in connection with Mr. Trump’s efforts to cancel the elections in 2020.
And the commission said it wanted to question Mr Brooks about statements he made in March alleging that Mr Trump had repeatedly asked him in the post-election months to “undo” the results illegally, to remove President Biden. and impose special elections.
The so-called speech or debate clause of the Constitution, designed to protect the independence of the legislature, says that senators and representatives “should not be questioned anywhere else” for any speech or debate in any chamber. It is interpreted broadly to cover all legislative actions, not just words. At first glance, however, this clause is limited to questioning them in “other” places, such as courtrooms.
There is also a precedent for the Chamber to call its members in a narrow context. The Ethics Committee of the Chamber has the power according to the rules of the Chamber to call members for testimony or documents and the members are obliged to comply.
The commission also requested an interview with Texas spokesman Ronnie Jackson, a former Trump doctor at the White House, about why he was mentioned in encrypted messages from the Oath Keepers police group, some of whose members are accused of the attack.
Mr Jackson also refused to cooperate voluntarily, but he was not among those summoned on Thursday.
Ms Pelosi declined to comment, saying she respected the committee’s work. Maryland’s Democrat Steni H. Hoyer, a Democrat in the House of Representatives, said she was not worried that Republicans would seek revenge by issuing their own subpoenas in other investigations if they won the House.
“We all need to be asked to tell the truth to a committee that is looking for information that is important to our country and our democracy,” Mr Hoyer said.
Michael S. Schmidt contributed to the reports.
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