The select House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot subpoenaed five House Republicans on Thursday including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
In addition to McCarthy, the select committee subpoenaed Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona for testimony.
The unprecedented move comes after the committee asked the lawmakers to voluntary sit for an interview and they all declined.
“We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty, and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss. ) said in a statement.
Thompson said the committee could recommend contempt charges if the lawmakers defy the subpoena, as it has done for others, though members have not discussed that step, according to CBS News.
The committee says all five Trump loyalists have information critical to their investigation of the deadly riot.
The committee said McCarthy was in contact with Trump “before, during and after” January 6, and wants information about his conversations with the former president including a heated phone call on Jan. 6. The committee also wants information on conversations McCarthy had with other lawmakers in the days after the attack.
In a conference call with Republican leaders, McCarthy said Trump had acknowledged that he bears some responsibility for the attack. McCarthy also said on another leaked tape that he was considering asking Trump to resign with just days left in his term.
The panel said Perry has information about a plan to install former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as the acting attorney general in the final days of Trump’s presidency. The New York Times reports that Clark was working with Trump and other DOJ officials to find ways to keep Trump in office.
The committee said Jordan had at least one conversation with Trump on Jan. 6. The panel also wants information about meetings he had “with White House officials and the then-President in November and December 2020, and early January 2021, about strategies for overturning the results of the 2020 election.”
The panel told Biggs it wants to ask him about his involvement in planning the rally for Jan. 6, as well as his “efforts to persuade state legislators and officials that the 2020 election was stolen and/or to seek assistance from those individuals in President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.” It added, “Certain communications that you had with Mark Meadows relate to this topic,” NBC News reports.
The panel wants to ask Brooks, who spoke at the Jan. 6 rally ahead of the riot, about comments he made after Trump withdrew his endorsement in the Alabama Senate primary.
Brooks said Trump “asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency.”
“As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period,” the release said.
