House Panel Drops Trump Subpoena

UPDATE Dec 29, 2022 10:30 AM CST

Time's almost up for the House panel assembled to investigate the attack on the Capitol, and the committee has decided to give up on getting testimony from the man they say "set this all in motion." The New York Times reports that the panel, set to dissolve Jan. 3, has withdrawn its subpoena against former President Trump. Trump sued the panel in November, per the AP, and it was feared the committee would run out of time to fight his complaint, which pushed back against offering documents and/or his testimony related to the Jan. 6 riot. That fear has now come to fruition. "In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena," Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel's chair, wrote in a letter to Trump's legal team. Unsurprisingly, Trump is celebrating.

Oct 21, 2022 1:10 PM CDT

The House Jan. 6 panel has followed through on its pledge to subpoena former President Trump. The select committee issued the subpoena on Friday, demanding that Trump testify under oath about the events leading to the Capitol riot by Nov. 14, reports the Washington Post. The panel also wants related documents from Trump by Nov. 4. “We recognize that a subpoena to a former President is a significant and historic action," Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote in a letter to Trump, per the AP. "We do not take this action lightly.”

The big unanswered question is whether the former president will comply, notes Axios. In a letter to the committee after the subpoena vote last week, Trump criticized the hearings as a "witch hunt" but did not explicitly say whether he would refuse to testify. (One report suggested that Trump would appear on the condition that his testimony be aired on live TV.) “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 multipart effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” says the letter from Thompson and Cheney. (More Jan. 6 hearings stories.)