Jan 6 panel issues new subpoenas for Donald Trump rally speechwriter; advisers to Trump Jr.
A former White House aide who helped draft Donald Trump's speech prior to the Capitol attack was among three new witnesses subpoenaed Tuesday by the special House committee investigating the deadly assault on Jan. 6, 2021.
In addition to demanding documents and testimony from speechwriter Ross Worthington, the panel issued subpoenas to Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, both advisers to Donald Trump Jr., who had been in contact with organizers and participants in the rally at the Ellipse where Trump urged protesters to march to the Capitol.
"I'll be there with you," Trump told the crowd that day.
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"We have reason to believe the individuals we’ve subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to join the more than 340 individuals who have spoken with the Select Committee as we push ahead to investigate this attack on our democracy and ensure nothing like this ever happens again," committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said.
The committee said both Surabian and Schwartz were "communicating" with Trump Jr., and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, about the rally.
In its letter to Worthington, the committee referred to excerpts from Trump's speech in which the then-president urged the crowd to "fight much harder" to "stop the steal" in a reference to the false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen.
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The new subpoenas come as Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel's co-chairperson, have indicated that the committee is examining whether Trump's actions or and inaction on Jan. 6 amounted to criminal conduct.
"If, in the course of our review, we find something that we think warrants review or recommendation to the Department of Justice ... we will do it," Thompson said in a recent interview with ABC’s "This Week." "We are not looking for it, but if we find it, we will absolutely make the (criminal) referral."