Trump subpoenaed By House Jan 6 committee in unanimous vote

The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot votes to subpoena to Trump, a move that marks a significant escalation of the probe.

Former US president Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Legacy Sports USA in Arizona.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol voted Thursday to issue a subpoena to former President Donald Trump for testimony and documents, a move that marked a significant escalation of the panel’s probe.

“We want to hear from him,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.), chairman of the committee, said in closing remarks, referring to Mr. Trump. “It is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony...A subpoena to a former president is a serious and extraordinary action.” “We must seek testimony, under oath, of January 6th’s key player,” said Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), the panel’s vice chairwoman.

Mr Trump reacted on his social media platform to the subpoena vote.“Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly - A laughing stock all over the World?”

The hearing focused on Mr. Trump’s state of mind before and after the election. The panel also examined what it has described as “ongoing threats to democracy that persist to this day,” as Mr. Trump and some other Republicans continue to falsely claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

The public hearing, the ninth this year, featured video recordings of witness interviews, including some that haven’t been aired publicly before. All nine of the committee members, including seven Democrats and two Republicans, are expected to take part Thursday. The hearing, which didn’t include live witnesses, was originally scheduled for last month, but was postponed due to Hurricane Ian.

“Donald Trump knew he lost,” Mr. Thompson said in his opening remarks. “What Donald Trump proceeded to do after the 2020 election is something no president has done before in our country.” Mr. Trump has said he did nothing wrong and calls the select committee a partisan witch hunt. He was impeached by the House in early 2021 on a charge of inciting an insurrection and acquitted in the Senate. Mr. Trump’s representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment on Thursday’s hearing.

Ms. Cheney said the committee has unearthed evidence about efforts to obstruct the committee’s investigation and conceal key facts. “Our committee may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice,” she said.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney speaks after the committee voted to subpoena former US President Donald Trump to testify.

Ms. Cheney said Mr. Trump had a “premeditated plan to declare that the election was fraudulent and stolen before Election Day, before he knew the election results.” She said Mr. Trump admitted that he lost the election and took actions “consistent with that belief.” The committee’s subpoena doesn’t mean it’s likely Mr. Trump will appear before Congress, legal experts said.

“The chance we see him testify is almost zero,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. Even if he does appear, he is likely to assert his right under the Fifth Amendment not to answer questions, Mr. Eliason said.

The issue is moot if Republicans take back the House after November’s midterm elections, as they could cancel the subpoena when they assume control of the chamber in January, Mr. Eliason said.

The committee played previously unseen footage of lawmakers reacting to the attack on Jan. 6. “Do you believe this? Do you believe this?” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), after being told that House officials were putting on gas masks.

“It’s just horrendous,” Mrs. Pelosi said on a phone call with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, as she sought to get more police to the Capitol. “And all at the instigation of the president of the United States.” Since its most recent hearing in late July, the panel has received thousands of documents from the Secret Service and interviewed new witnesses, including several members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet. Documentary evidence presented Thursday will include information from hundreds of thousands of pages the Secret Service presented to the committee after it subpoenaed the agency in July.

After the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Joe Biden’s election in early December, Mr. Trump grew increasingly agitated, evidence from the hearing showed. “Just fyi. POTUS is pissed--breaking news--Supreme Court denied his law suit. He is livid now,” a Dec. 11, 2020, Secret Service email said.

Video testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, former senior aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said she encountered Mr. Trump near the Oval Office soon after the Supreme Court’s decision. “I don’t want people to know that we lost, Mark,” she said Mr. Trump told Mr. Meadows. “This is embarrassing. Figure it out.” The committee displayed messages from Secret Service agents noting evidence that members of the crowd at the Ellipse before the White House were prepared for violence. “Some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks,” a Secret Service message from the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, said.

The Secret Service also was aware of violent threats against former Vice President Mike Pence, messages showed.

Early in the hearing, the committee presented testimony related to Mr. Trump’s plans to claim victory before all ballots were counted. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), a member of the committee, said Mr. Trump’s advisers told him that on election night there wasn’t enough information to know the winner. Despite that, Mr. Trump declared that night, “frankly, we did win this election.” “It was far too early to be making any calls like that, ballots were still being counted,” Bill Stepien, a senior campaign official for Mr. Trump, said in recorded testimony.

In the committee’s July hearing, the panel presented testimony that Mr. Trump spent the afternoon of the riot at the White House watching televised footage of the attack. Despite the urging of aides and family members, he refused to take action to stop the violence for several hours, witnesses testified.

In Thursday’s hearing, the committee is presenting its findings from the new interviews and documents alongside a broad look at Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse the election results, including events before the 2020 election and after Jan. 6, 2021, according to committee aides. The panel has previously laid out efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to pressure officials in state and local governments to help block President Biden’s win after the election.

Ms. Lofgren spelled out connections between Mr. Trump’s allies, including his longtime adviser Roger Stone, and far-right groups involved in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. The committee played a video recording of Mr. Stone, before the election, saying that if the election results are uncertain, “the key thing to do then is declare victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. We won. F -- you,” Mr. Stone said.

“In addition to his connection to President Trump, Roger Stone maintained extensive direct connections to two groups responsible for violently attacking the Capitol, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys,” Ms. Lofgren said. Mr. Stone didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors have charged this year more than a dozen members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys with engaging in a seditious conspiracy against the U.S. A parallel Justice Department probe into the events leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, has escalated in recent months, with prosecutors serving dozens of subpoenas to people close to the former president’s efforts to remain in office.

Many of the most recent subpoenas have sought information about plans by Trump associates to send fake pro-Trump slates of electors from several battleground states to Congress to block Mr. Biden’s victory.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the inquiry “the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into,” but he has declined to comment on the prospect of Mr. Trump facing charges.

The Justice Department is separately examining Mr. Trump’s handling of classified and other sensitive government documents that were taken to his Mar-a-Lago home after he left the White House. Mr. Trump has called the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified materials the “Raid of Mar-a-Lago Document Hoax.” In July, the Secret Service, responsible for the security of the president and vice president, provided a set of more than 10,000 documents to the Jan. 6 committee, but none included previously undisclosed text messages from Jan. 5 or 6, 2021. A Department of Homeland Security inspector general accused the agency of erasing text messages from those dates. The Secret Service has denied wrongdoing and said the messages were lost during a migration to a new phone system.

Activities by the Secret Service have played a central role in several of the previous hearings. Ms. Hutchinson testified before the committee in June that Mr. Trump wanted to be driven to the Capitol and wrestled for the steering wheel when Robert Engel, head of his Secret Service detail, refused to obey his orders.

Ms. Hutchinson said her testimony about the ride in the presidential vehicle was based on an account from Tony Ornato, former White House deputy chief of staff, told to her in the presence of Mr. Engel.

A person close to the Secret Service said Mr. Ornato denied telling Ms. Hutchinson that Mr. Trump lunged at the steering wheel or assaulted an agent. Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Ms. Hutchinson’s claims about the event were fraudulent, adding that he “hardly knew who she was.”

The Wall Street Journal