WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – The U.S. House Select Committee, investigating the Jan 6 Capitol riot, issued subpoenas to six associates of former President Trump, asking them to provide documents related to their involvement in the riot and appear for depositions.
“In the days before the Jan 6 attack, the former president’s closest allies and advisers, drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes,” the committee’s chair, Mississippi Democratic Congressman, Bennie Thompson, said.
Those subpoenaed included Bill Stepien, manager of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign; Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign; Angela McCallum, national executive assistant to the campaign; John Eastman, a lawyer who advised the former president; Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to Trump, who talked with the former president ahead of the insurrection; and Bernard Kerik, who, the Select Committee said, paid for hotel rooms that were used as command centres, in the lead-up to Jan 6.
“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,” Thompson added.
He told the Trump associates that, the panel now possesses “credible evidence” of their participation in Trump’s efforts, to overturn his defeat in the election, citing ways in which each of them tried to promote the former president’s claims.
The subpoenas came as the panel has already demanded documents and testimony from several other Trump advisers. Among them was one of Trump’s staunchest allies, Steve Bannon, whom the House voted last month, to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress, after he refused to comply with his subpoena.
Others facing subpoenas are former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows and administration aides, Kashyap Patel and Dan Scavino. They were reportedly “engaging” with the investigators.
Trump has been fighting the probe in court, claiming to insert his executive privileges, to shield some of the records from Congress. President Biden refused to grant Trump those privileges in the context of the probe, saying, it would otherwise not be in the best interest of the nation.– NNN-XINHUA
