Washington — House Select Committee on Investigations January 6 attack on the US Capitol unanimously on Thursday they voted to issue a subpoena to former President Donald Trump for documents and testimony.
The 9-0 vote came before the close of the committee’s formal business meeting convened Thursday, during which all nine of its members gave presentations on Trump’s campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent a transfer of power. NBC news was the first to report the committee’s plans to vote to subpoena Trump.
“Thanks to the tireless work of our members and investigators, we have left no doubt, no doubt, that Donald Trump led an effort to subvert American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a member of the committee. chairman. “He sought to take away the voice of the American people in electing their president and replace the will of the voters with his will to stay in power. He is the only person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th.” So we want to hear him.”
Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, said it was the committee’s “obligation” to request Trump’s testimony.
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“This is a question of accountability to the American people. He has to be held accountable,” he continued. “He is being held accountable for his actions. He is held accountable for those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He is held accountable for the millions of Americans whose votes he sought to throw out.” as part of his plan to stay in power. And whatever is done to ensure his accountability under the law, this committee will demand a full accounting of the events of January 6th to the American people.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chairwoman, offered a resolution that the committee direct the chairman to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building.
“Our duty today is to our country, our children and our Constitution,” she said. “We have an obligation to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And we have a right to answers today, so we can act now to protect our republic.”
IN post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump questioned why the select committee did not ask him to testify earlier.
“Why did they wait until the very end, the last 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 around the world?” he wrote
Thompson told reporters before the meeting that the committee “has not ruled out” subpoenaing Trump. In an opening statement at the start of the hearing, he noted that this was formal committee business, allowing members to “potentially hold a committee vote on further investigative action based on this evidence.”
The vote to compel the former president to testify is a dramatic escalation in the committee’s investigation, which has seen the panel conduct more than 1,000 interviews and depositions, including a number of White House officials, Trump cabinet members and campaign aides. Thompson noted the gravity of the decision to subpoena Trump, calling it a “serious and extraordinary action” deserving of a public vote.
Committee members have repeatedly said publicly during his investigation that they are considering whether to ask Vice President Mike Pence to appear before them, but have not yet decided whether to do so. But he said “no” Thursday when asked if the committee would subpoena former Vice President Thompson. They also had not said before Thursday whether they had decided to issue a subpoena to the former president.
Trump is likely to challenge the subpoena. In the past, he has asked federal courts to intervene in efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain his tax returns and financial records, as well as a select committee’s attempt to obtain Trump’s White House records from the National Archives and Records Administration.
In January, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to block the release of his White House documents, and the committee received those records soon after. Only Justice Clarence Thomas noted that he would grant Trump’s request to shield the records from House investigators.
As the committee arranged, the Supreme Court met on Thursday refused the request by Trump to intervene in a dispute over documents he brought with him from the White House to his South Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, at the end of his presidency in January 2021. No dissents were recorded.
In the course of its year-long investigation, the select committee charted what it described as a multifaceted effort by the former president to remain in office despite losing the 2020 election to President Biden.
These efforts, rooted in his baseless claims that the election was fraught with voter fraud, culminated in an attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
House investigators held eight public hearings over the summer, with Thursday’s hearing, their ninth, likely to be its last. During opening remarks, Cheney said the focus of the meeting was Trump’s “state of mind, his intent, his motivations and how he got others to do his bidding.”
“The sheer weight of the evidence presented so far has shown us that the root cause of January 6 was one man, Donald Trump, followed by many others,” she said. “None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of this.”
In her closing remarks before voting to subpoena Trump, Cheney said the committee had “enough information” to answer questions about the Jan. 6 assault, as well as “enough information” to consider referring criminal charges to several people.
“But,” she said, “a key task remains: We have to get the central player’s testimony under oath on January 6.”
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