WASHINGTON – In an extraordinary move, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol formally subpoenaed Donald Trump on Friday, kicking off a legal battle with the former president who has denounced the committee’s investigation as political.
CLICK ON PHOTO AND JOIN TO SECRET CHANNEL OF PRESIDENT TRUMP ON TELEGRAM!
JOIN ALL TRUE PATRIOTS https://t.me/+3iXrJ5bVUVViMDk0
In a letter to Trump, the committee leaders said they have “assembled overwhelming evidence” he orchestrated an effort to overturn the 2020 election even though he knew he had lost, thereby setting the stage for the violent insurrection against the government.
“You were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself,” said the letter signed by the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson,D-Miss., and vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Trump, who continues to make false allegations about voter fraud, has not said whether or not he would honor the subpoena.
The subpoena ordered Trump to produce an array of documents by Nov. 4 and “to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about November 14.”
The document requests included records of phone calls Trump had with advisers involved in the plot, from political adviser Roger Stone to attorney Rudy Giuliani. The subpoena requested “information sufficient to identify every telephone or other communications device you used from November 3, 2020, to January 20, 2021.”‘
The letter, which comes a little more than a week after the panel voted to take the action, listed a number of allegations, including that the former president “maliciously” disseminated false allegations of voter fraud to raise money and overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump also attempted to “corrupt the Department of Justice,” the letter read.
The subpoena requested:
- Documents sent or received through Signal or other means since Sept. 1, 2020, with members of the far-right militia groups Oath Keepers or Proud Boys. The request comes as five members of the Oath Keepers are on trial, charged with seditious conspiracy.
- Documents between the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riot encouraging people to travel to Washington, D.C.
- Records of phone calls, texts or Signal communications placed or received by Trump between the election and Jan. 6, 2021.
- Pictures and video recordings taken on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump held a rally near the White House.
In particular, the committee seeks Trump communications with political operative Stone, former strategist Steve Bannon, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and personal lawyers John Eastman, Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Boris Epshteyn, Christina Bobb, Cleta Mitchell or Patrick Byrne.
Trump sought to install Clark as acting attorney general to fight 2020 election results. Eastman and Chesebro developed the strategy to recruit alternate slates of electors in states Biden won.
Giuliani, Ellis and Powell each worked to overturn the election results. Mitchell participated in the Trump call to Georgia election officials, urging them to “find” him enough votes to beat Biden in that state.
Bobb represented Trump in the search for government documents at Mar-a-Lago. She signed a declaration in June stating Trump had turned over all classified documents in his possession, but FBI agents seized more than 100 more during an August search.
Denver Riggleman, a former military intelligence officer and former committee staffer, told USA TODAY that the panel would be especially interested in any potential use of the encrypted Signal messaging app by Trump because of its use by other key participants in the alleged plot to overturn the election results, including former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
But Riggleman said Signal messages are easily deleted and even auto-erased, making it hard for investigators to obtain them even with a warrant.
“Someone would have to be stupid enough to intentionally keep them or not delete them, even after knowing of investigators’ interest in them,” he said.
