Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
- The Jan 6 committee just subpoenaed 6 more people.
- That includes Trump's 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
- If they don't comply in 14 days, the House could vote to hold them in contempt.
The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol on Monday issued 6 more subpoenas targeted at individuals "involved in efforts to promote false claims of election fraud or overturn the results of the 2020 election."
The subpoenas, directed at 6 associates of former President Donald Trump, compel the individuals to provide testimony and records to the commission pertaining to their involvement in efforts to spread lies about the 2020 election and instigate a riot that temporarily halted the counting of electoral votes on January 6, 2021.
"In the days before the January 6th attack, the former President's closest allies and advisors drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes," said select committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson in a statement. "The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all."
"The Select Committee expects all witnesses to cooperate with our investigation as we work to get answers for the American people, recommend changes to our laws that will strengthen our democracy, and help ensure nothing like January 6th ever happens again," he added.
The individuals subpoenaed by the committee include:
- Bill Stepien, Trump's 2020 campaign manager.
- Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security advisor.
- Jason Miller, a senior advisor for Trump's 2020 campaign and the founder of GETTR.
- Angela McCallum, an executive assistant on Trump's 2020 campaign.
- John Eastman, a legal scholar who reportedly told then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject electors from certain states in order to deny President Joe Biden an Electoral College majority.
- Bernard Kerik, a former New York City Police Commissioner who reportedly participated in the "war room" at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC the day before the assault on the Capitol.
While each subpoena is broadly related to the former president's efforts to overturn the election, the subpoena letters offer clues about what the select committee hopes to learn from each witness.
Stepien's letter references his supervision of "the conversion of the Trump presidential campaign to an effort focused on 'Stop The Steal' messaging" that was echoed by rioters on January 6, as well as urging states to send slates of alternate electors to the Electoral College.
The letters addressed to Miller, Eastman, and Kerik all reference a January 5 meeting at the Willard Hotel, where a "command center" or "war room" was led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the purposes of devising a legal strategy to ensure Trump's re-election as president despite his loss 2 months earlier.
Lt Gen. Mike Flynn's letter references a December 18 Oval Office meeting where he reportedly "discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers," which Flynn did the day before on Newsmax as well.
The committee wants to know more about Eastman's infamous memo to Pence, as well as a January 2 briefing he gave to roughly 300 state legislators from several states, where he told them that it was "the duty of the legislatures to fix this... and make sure that we're not putting in the White House some guy that didn't get elected."
The committee also references an email Eastman sent to a Pence aide on January 6 where he said the riot was happening "because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened."
And Angela McCallum's letter indicates that the committee wants to know more about a voicemail she left with an unidentified Michigan state legislator urging them to appoint an alternate slate of electors due to claims of voter fraud.
If any of the 6 individuals do not comply with the committee's subpoenas, the House could then vote to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress and refer the matter to the Department of Justice, as it did on October 21 with Steve Bannon. Nine Republicans broke ranks and voted with every Democrat to hold Bannon in contempt.