As the House select committee ramps up its investigation into the MAGA-fueled January 6 insurrection, the panel is preparing to break a wall of resistance by Donald Trump and his allies to defy the Jan. 6 probe.
Trump has a fast-approaching deadline to attempt to block the National Archives from releasing records from his White House that could shed light on his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. And some of his closest aides have until Thursday to comply with a committee subpoena for their own records.
But the panel, which has worked briskly but methodically to gather records from federal agencies and scoop up voluntary testimony from friendly witnesses, is gearing up for an expected fight with the MAGA leader and his allies.
The committee will likely face the first test of its legal and political muscle on Thursday, when subpoenas to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino and Trump-world figures Steve Bannon and Kash Patel require them to supply documents to the panel.
As noted by Politico, “None of the four has publicly signaled how they will respond to the subpoena, and Patel has issued a statement criticizing the committee’s process. Repeated inquiries to representatives for Trump and to members of his inner circle about how they intend to respond have gone unanswered.”
Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said Friday that he was prepared to issue “criminal referrals” to anyone who defied deadlines.
“We’ll do whatever the law allows us to do,” said Thompson, when asked about how the panel would handle it if Meadows and others rejected any cooperation.
Committee member Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) added: “I think it would be a mistake to say that we aren’t prepared for all of these eventualities.”
But committee members expect that these witnesses won’t willingly cooperate — one of the reasons the panel issued subpoenas without offering them a chance to voluntarily provide documents or testimony.
“The committee is determined to follow every conceivable end,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “There were literally thousands of people involved in these events. So we’re convinced that the truth is going to come out.”
Politico reports that one reason for their confidence is that “Witnesses have begun coming forward to testify behind closed doors in transcribed interviews, a setup used by the House Intelligence Committee during Trump’s first impeachment. Almost exactly two years ago, the impeachment panel — helmed by Rep. Adam Schiff, who sits on the Jan. 6 committee today — broke Trump’s logjam when it secured a voluntary transcribed interview with veteran diplomat Kurt Volker. That led to a cascade of interviews with other State Department and Pentagon officials.”
