House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters on Monday that the select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to issue immediate subpoenas to witnesses whom the panel expects to resist cooperation.
“In some cases, we’re making requests we think will be complied with,” Schiff said according to Politico. “In other cases, we’re going straight to subpoenas where we think we’re dealing with recalcitrant witnesses.”
As noted by P{olitico, the move is “a sharp break from the impeachment of Donald Trump that Schiff led in 2019, when committees gave potential witnesses weeks to voluntarily comply before issuing subpoenas. Schiff said the change is an acknowledgment of the short timeline that the Jan. 6 panel faces to try to unearth details about the Trump White House’s role in the Capitol attack and the former president’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election results.”
The select panel is going to “forgo some of the time-consuming steps” that have dogged previous investigations, Schiff added, Compared with the independent 9/11 Commission two decades ago, he said, the Jan. 6 panel is moving with “great rapidity.”
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“And where we do meet resistance, we intend to push back hard and fast,” Schiff said.
Schiff said he also hoped the Biden administration would break from Trump-era practices of fighting efforts by Congress to hold witnesses in contempt if they refuse to cooperate. The Biden administration’s posture toward the Jan. 6 committee may also help speed up efforts to garner new information, he added, noting that the current Justice Department is unlikely to support what he called “bogus claims of [executive] privilege” by the Trump team.
Schiff declined to identify specific witnesses the panel would call but may speculate GOP Reps Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, and Mo Brooks could be among the first to be subpoenaed by the committee.
Schiff said he expects new details to “mushroom” in the coming weeks.
