Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Roger Stone, Alex Jones Over Participation in 'Stop the Steal' Rally

The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol has issued subpoenas for former Donald Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone and Alex Jones, owner of the right-wing website InfoWars.

The committee announced on Monday it was seeking information from five more people in connection with the storming of the national legislature by Trump's supporters during his final days as president.

“The Select Committee is seeking information about the rallies and subsequent march to the Capitol that escalated into a violent mob attacking the Capitol and threatening our democracy," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the committee, said in a Monday news release.

"We need to know who organized, planned, paid for, and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with officials in the White House and Congress. We believe the witnesses we subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to cooperate fully with our effort to get answers for the American people about the violence of January 6th," he added.

According to the release, Stone was slated to speak at the "Stop the Steal" rally outside the White House hosted by Trump that immediately preceded the attack on the Capitol, and "promoted his attendance at the rallies and solicited support to pay for security" through a website. It also says that a member of the Oath Keeper militia who reportedly served as part of Stone's security entourage in Washington, DC, has already been indicted, and adds that "Mr. Stone has made remarks that he was planning to 'lead a march to the Capitol' from the Ellipse rally."

Roger Stone accompanied by his wife Nydia Stone, left, arrives for his sentencing at U.S. District Court in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020

© AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta

Stone was previously jailed in 2019 for procedural crimes associated with then-special counsel Robert Mueller's Russiagate investigation. Sentenced to 40 months in prison, Trump commuted his sentence in July 2020, days before he was due to surrender himself, and then fully pardoned him on December 2020.

Jones, it says, helped organize the January 6 rally, "including by facilitating a donation to provide what he described as 'eighty percent' of the funding." He also spoke at a related rally the day prior.

"Mr. Jones has stated that he was told by the White House that he was to lead a march from the January 6th Ellipse rally to the Capitol, where President Trump would meet the group and speak," the release adds. "Mr. Jones has repeatedly promoted unsupported allegations of election fraud, including encouraging individuals to attend the Ellipse rally on January 6th and implying he had knowledge about the plans of the former President with respect to the rally."

Three other figures are also named in the release, including Dustin Stockton and his fiancee, Jennifer Lawrence, who the committee says were reportedly involved in organizing several pro-Trump rallies after the November 3, 2020, election, aimed at repudiating the results, which showed now-US President Joe Biden as the victor.

Taylor Budowich, who now serves as Trump's spokesperson, "reportedly solicited a 501c(4) organization to conduct a social media and radio advertising campaign encouraging attendance at the January 6th Ellipse rally and advancing unsupported claims about the result of the election," the release says.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones walks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020

© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana

Since it was formed in July, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol has met extensive resistance obtaining materials, with Trump filing repeated lawsuits aimed at halting the release of his documents by the National Archives under the purview of executive privilege. Dozens of subpoenas have been issued, which several figures have ignored, including former senior Trump adviser and far-right ideologue Steve Bannon, who was indicted and booked earlier this month; Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff at the time of the riot; and Jeffrey Clark, who was assistant attorney general at the time.

Five people died in the riot, including a US Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot by a USCP officer outside the House chamber while attempting to break through the door. However, Trump's supporters failed at their objectives of either disrupting verification of the election results by Congress or capturing any members of Congress or other politicians who rejected Trump's claims to have only lost the election due to fraud. Thousands of US troops garrisoned the capital city in the wake of the attack, and Biden was sworn in later that month under unprecedented heavy guard.

Trump was impeached by Congress on charges of instigating the insurrection, but was acquitted by a minority of senators in a trial several weeks after leaving office.