The House Jan. 6 Capitol investigation committee issued six new subpoenas to associates of former President Donald Trump, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and members of his reelection campaign.
In a statement from the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), subpoenas were issued to Flynn, former Trump spokesman Jason Miller, former NYPD Chief Bernard Kerik, former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, Trump campaign assistant Angela McCallum, and lawyer John Eastman, who authored a memo arguing that Vice President Mike Pence could reject Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory during the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6.
Thompson said that his committee “needs to know every detail about their efforts … including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress.”
The committee, he added, “expects all witnesses to cooperate with our investigation as we work to get answers for the American people” and “recommend changes to our laws.” Earlier this year, the panel was established by House lawmakers in a partisan vote and is led by Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who has repeatedly criticized Trump and Republican House leaders after Jan. 6.
The Justice Department is still considering if it will charge former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon with contempt of Congress for allegedly defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena. The House referred Bannon’s case for possible prosecution in mid-October.
“This is a criminal matter. There is an ongoing examination of the referral, and as you know the Justice Department doesn’t comment on those,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday when asked about Bannon during an unrelated news conference about ransomware arrests. “We evaluate these in the normal way we do, looking at the facts and the law and applying the principles of prosecution.”
It came weeks after President Joe Biden publicly encouraged the Department of Justice to prosecute those who defy the Jan. 6 committee, although the agency later pledged independence.
“The Department of Justice will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop,” Justice Department spokesperson Anthony Coley said at the time. Days after his comment, Biden said he misspoke.
On Oct. 21, the House—in a partisan vote—approved holding Bannon, who was also a former White House advisor to Trump during the early stages of his presidency, in contempt of Congress. Members of the Jan. 6 commission alleged Bannon refused to provide documents and testimony to the panel before saying he has no legal standing to defy the subpoena.
An attorney for Trump argued Bannon shouldn’t comply because he’s protected by the former commander-in-chief’s executive privilege.
“The January 6th Committee is a partisan sham to distract Americans from the Democrats’ policies that are killing and robbing Americans,” the memo read.
