The House Select Committee investigating the insurrection on January 6 has issued subpoenas to several advisers to former President Donald Trump, including Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Lawmakers are looking to obtain records related to Trump’s actions in the hours leading up the Capitol riot and how he responded as the crisis unfolded.
The list of those subpoenaed also includes former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel; the committee requests that the four men hand over documents by October 7 and submit to depositions the week after. The letter to Bannon states that he was “communicating with then-President Trump on Dec. 30, 2020, and potentially other occasions, urging him to plan for and focus his efforts on Jan. 6,” and was quoted as saying “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow” on January 5. In letters to the other recipients, the committee wrote that Meadows “reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election’s certification,” while Scavino was in contact with Trump and planners of the Stop the Steal rally and Patel was in contact with Meadows throughout the day.
With lawmakers trying to get a granular understanding of Trump’s actions and communication on January 6, the committee has already sent records requests to several government agencies and tech companies. However, it’s unclear to what extent the Trump allies subpoenaed on Thursday will comply. Already, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has threatened firms that go along with the inquiry, saying that “a Republican majority will not forget.” And during the Mueller investigation, the House had to vote to establish the authority to sue Trump advisers who were not cooperating with congressional subpoenas, including former White House counsel Don McGahn.
Trump, for one, was not thrilled by the news. In a statement on Thursday night, he said that he and his allies intended to fight the subpoenas “on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country,” adding that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States is actually more like an “unselect committee.”
