January 6 committee subpoenas Trump allies
The House select committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol on Thursday issued subpoenas to four of former president Donald Trump's closest allies and aides, zeroing in his activities that day.
The committee sent letters to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senior Counselor Steve Bannon, Communications Director Dan Scavino and Pentagon Chief of Staff Kashyap Patel informing them of the subpoenas, the committee said in a statement.
The committee set a deadline of October 7 for the four men to turn over documents, and scheduled depositions for October 14 and 15.
In letters informing the men of the subpoenas, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson asked for details of Mr. Trump's strategies and actions before and while an angry mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol.
"The Select Committee is investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack and issues relating to the peaceful transfer of power, in order to identify and evaluate lessons learned and to recommend to the House and its relevant committees corrective laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations," Congressman Bennie Thompson, the panel's chair, wrote in the letters.
The committee wants information from Bannon because of news reports he urged Mr. Trump to focus on January 6 and attempted to convince members of Congress to vote against certification of the election. The committee told Meadows it was interested in talking to him because it has documents showing he had requested that the DOJ conduct election fraud investigations in several states and that he was in the vicinity of Mr. Trump on January 6.
Patel was issued the subpoena because he was involved in discussions with senior Pentagon officials about Capitol security before and on January 6, according to defense department documents cited in the letter. Scavino is a focus of attention because of his proximity to the former president that day and his reported knowledge of the communications strategy of the president and his allies before and on January 6.
The committee last month additionally asked for detailed information about the former president's whereabouts throughout that day.
In a statement responding to news of the subpoenas, Mr. Trump called the committee "highly partisan" and pledged to "fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country."
Congressman Adam Schiff, who sits on the select committee, told CBS News earlier this week that the panel was prepared to move directly to subpoenas for witnesses who don't comply with requests, breaking the precedent of giving potential witnesses weeks to comply before issuing them subpoenas.
"As we begin moving to interviews and depositions, we expect that some will be hostile with those requests and with some we may go directly to subpoenas," he said. "Most are cooperating but not all."
In a statement to CBS News, Patel wrote that he was "disappointed, but not surprised, that the Committee tried to subpoena me through the press and violated longstanding protocol—which I upheld as a congressional staffer—by resorting to compulsory process before seeking my voluntary cooperation."
"I will continue to tell the truth to the American people about the events of January 6th," he said.