The Special Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol formally issued its subpoena to Donald Trump on Friday, the same day a federal judge sentenced Steve Bannon to four months in prison for violating just such an order from the same committee.
The bipartisan panel of nine House members sent a letter to Trump lawyers Friday, with co-chairs Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney as signatories, demanding Trump’s testimony under oath by no later than Nov. 14. The committee also demanded documents including personal communications of the former President.
“We recognize that a subpoena to a former President is a significant and historic action,” the letter read, according to the Associated Press. “We do not take this action lightly.”
Trump had yet to respond to the subpoena.
The committee’s letter cites “overwhelming evidence” that Trump pressured and attempted to corrupt everyone from Justice Department officials and state officials to his own Vice President.
The committee voted 9-0 to issue the subpoena earlier this month, saying Trump was the “central figure” in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and needed to be questioned. In Trump’s response, the former president wondered why the committee didn’t just subpoena him in the first place, waiting instead to use the gesture as a dramatic final flourish for their “Bust!” hearings.
