Lawmakers Subpoena Trump In Final Hearing

Topline

The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump on Thursday, after its ninth and likely final hearing on Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney speaks after the committee voted to subpoena former US President … [+] Donald Trump to testify, during a hearing to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on October 13, 2022. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The nine-member committee unanimously voted to demand documents and testimony from the former president at the end of Thursday’s hearing, with vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) arguing “we are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion.”

Trump is widely expected to fight any request for information or testimony, unnamed sources familiar with the committee’s work told the New York Times.

The committee spent Thursday’s hearing zoning in on what it described as a premeditated plan by Trump to deny the results of the 2020 presidential election, while summarizing evidence collected from his lawyers, allies, confidants and staffers—many of whom said they urged the former president to concede.

Lawmakers showed a draft of Trump’s election night speech and a clip of former White House advisor Steve Bannon telling his Chinese associates that “what Trump’s gonna do is declare victory . . . that doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner,” in audio that first leaked this summer.

Trump was eager to declare victory on election night based on the results of ballots cast in-person, which were more likely to favor him than absentee ballots, according to testimony from Trump advisors like former campaign manager Bill Stepien, who said he told Trump “to say that votes were still being counted” and “it’s too early to call the race.”

Trump was visibly angry after the Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuit contesting the election results, according to a December 2020 Secret Service memo presented by the committee on Thursday that read “Just FYI. POTUS is pissed … He is livid now.”

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson also told the committee Trump was “fired up about the Supreme Court decision,” and at one point, the president told Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, “I don’t want people to know that we lost.”

Crucial Quote

Cheney said evidence collected by the committee “has shown us that the central cause of January 6 was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed.”

Tangent

The hearing also included newly released video footage showing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling for reinforcements from Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen during the riot, telling him “the concern we have about personal safety transcends everything.”

Key Background

Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) teased the committee’s plan to vote on further investigative action on Thursday, saying in his opening statement “the most striking fact is that almost all of this evidence comes entirely from Republicans.” Prior to Thursday, it was unclear how the committee planned to move forward in involving Trump himself in its probe, and some reports said it had no plans to interview the former president. The committee has yet to make a decision on whether to request former Vice President Mike Pence’s appearance.

What To Watch For

Trump is likely to fight the subpoena, and the committee is running out of time to interview him before the current session of Congress ends early next year. Republicans are projected to take control of the House after next month’s midterm elections, and could dismantle the committee. Trump has pushed back on the committee in the past, seeking to block lawmakers from obtaining White House records, though he lost a court battle over the records. Several of his allies have refused to cooperate with subpoenas, including Bannon, who was found guilty of contempt of Congress earlier this year.