6 Jan. Probe Issues New Batch Of Subpoenas For Ex- Officials With ‘Pivotal Roles in Trump Campaign’

The partisan, Democratic-led House select committee investigating the January 6th riot at the US Capitol, established on 30 June and charged by Republicans as an instrument used to attack former President Donald Trump, has issued subpoenas to more than a dozen individuals, including several former administration officials.

The Democratic-led US House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riot has issued a batch of new subpoenas to several ex-Trump administration officials, allies and re-election campaign aides.

The court-ordered command, which included demands for records and testimony, has been issued to six individuals: Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn; attorney John Eastman; chief spokesman for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and senior adviser to 2020 re-election campaign, Jason Miller; 2020 re-election campaign manager Bill Stepien; former New York Police commissioner and Trump adviser Bernard Kerik; former Trump campaign aide Angela McCallum.

These six individuals include staff members of the former President’s campaign and individuals associated with the so-called “war room” that drove efforts to halt the counting of electoral votes in the runup to the violence of January 6th.

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— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) November 8, 2021

The probe, which Republicans have slammed as a “witch hunt”, alleges the witnesses were involved with Donald Trump’s campaign to urge states to delay or deny certification of electoral votes in the November 2020 presidential elections.

"In the days before the January 6th attack, the former President's closest allies and advisors drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes. The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chair of the committee, said in a statement, cited by NPR.

The committee that comprises seven Democrats and two Republicans believes that Donald Trump's campaign aides and advisers set up a “war room” that acted, in effect, as a command centre to coordinate efforts to overturn the certification of the results of the November 2020 presidential elections in the country.

U.S. Capitol Police officer Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, DC Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone, DC Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn watch a video of the Jan. 6 Attack during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, on the Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2021.

© REUTERS / POOL

The six witnesses, according to the panel, had been involved in efforts to promote Trump’s claims the 2020 elections had been “rigged” to favour his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

"All have information that is deeply important to the committee," panel member, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff was cited as saying.

“These are people who played pivotal roles at the very top of the Trump campaign, who have knowledge about the 'Big Lie' that the election was stolen, or rigged, or fraudulent somehow, that resulted in that violent insurrection. And in order to do a comprehensive report, we really need to hear from them," said Schiff.

Dems’ Flurry of Subpoenas

Jason Miller, said the panel, had issued warnings early in 2020 that that Democrats would "steal" the election. He is accused of subsequently coordinating with Trump and the ex-POTUS’ attorney Rudy Giuliani to promote the claims of fraud. According to the democratic-led committee, Miller joined witnesses Kerik and Eastman, as well as Giuliani and former strategist Steve Bannon at the Willard Hotel near the White House on the eve of the Capitol events to purportedly conceive a plot to overturn the results of the elections.

Attorney John Eastman, who spoke at the rally preceding the Capitol attack, is alleged to have participated in a briefing with nearly 300 state legislators ahead of the January 6 events, urging them not to put "some guy who didn't get elected" in office.

Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, departs a federal courthouse after a hearing, Monday, June 24, 2019, in Washington.

© AP Photo / Patrick Semansky

Michael Flynn is singled out by the committee as having allegedly participated in an Oval Office meeting on 18 December 2020 that is suggested as having weighed the possibility of seizing voting machines and invoking a national emergency.

The panel claimed to have in its possession a voicemail recording revealing Angela McCallum asking an unidentified Michigan state representative if the Trump campaign could "count on" them to appoint alternate electors. In his statement, Bennie Thompson urged subpoenaed witnesses to cooperate with the committee. Records and testimony from witnesses are demanded between late November and mid-December.

The panel has been working expeditiously, issuing more than two dozen subpoenas targeting former Trump officials and individuals seen as tied to organizers of the rally that preceded the US Capitol siege.

Tear gas is released into a crowd of protesters, with one wielding a Confederate battle flag that reads "Come and Take It," during clashes with Capitol police

© Shannon Stapleton

Last month, the House voted to hold former White House strategist Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, asking the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges.

Last month, the Biden administration blocked former President Donald Trump's request to withhold documents about the 6 January events at the Capitol. The decision authorizes the National Archives to hand over documents requested by the US House Select Committee. Trump subsequently sued the House panel for its inquiry, describing it as illegal and charging the panel's requests for documents from the Executive Branch as "unprecedented in their breadth and scope and… untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose."

The Democrats have insisted that Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud incited the so-called insurrection which had temporarily interrupted the electoral count certifying Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020 presidential elections. As a result of events at the Capitol, five people, including a Capitol police officer, died.

In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. U.S.

© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana

Trump has denied any culpability, underscoring that he was among the first to condemn the actions of the rioters, dissatisfied with the election results. Donald Trump, who had repeatedly claimed the “rigged” 2020 presidential election had been “stolen” from him, was accused of “inciting an insurrection”, and impeached by the US House of Representatives. Trump was later acquitted by the US Senate in a trial weeks after he left office.