The Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena matters because it sheds light on what exactly the committee wants from Trump, while crystalizing the accusations against him.
The biggest surprise at last week’s Jan. 6 committee hearing came at the very end: Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chair, introduced a resolution to subpoena Donald Trump. It was approved unanimously.
But as a procedural matter, there’s an important difference between agreeing to subpoena a former president and actually doing the work of preparing the legal directive. The committee vote was the first step, and as NBC News reported, the second step came today.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot subpoenaed former President Donald Trump on Friday for testimony and documents on his actions surrounding the bloodshed they say he instigated at the U.S. Capitol. The subpoena calls for Trump to testify on Nov. 14 — after the midterm elections.
At first blush, this may not seem especially significant. In fact, it may seem like paperwork: The bipartisan group of lawmakers effectively told the former president last week that they expected his cooperation with the investigation, so today’s announcement simply formalizes the demands, right?
Yes, but there’s more to it than that. The subpoena matters because it sheds light on what exactly the committee wants from the Republican, while crystalizing the accusations against him.
“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee’s leaders told Trump in the first paragraph of a letter accompanying the subpoena.
