Jan 6 Committee: DOJ Eyes Trump As Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Dy Counsel Patrick Philbin Subpoenaed

Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger said that former White House counsel Pat Cipollone being subpoenaed in connection with the riot spells trouble for former President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Kinzinger, who is one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, spoke about the significant turn in the Department of Justice's investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the effort to overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.

According to an analysis by Stephen Collinson for CNN, the news of grand jury subpoenas for Cipollone and former deputy counsel Patrick Philbin is the latest sign that department investigators are reaching inside Trump's inner circle during his final days as the U.S. President. Cipollone and Philbin were close to Trump inside the White House in the days after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election and in the run-up to the riot. Their testimony was sought by the department after the grand jury also heard from former chief of staff Marc Short and legal counsel Greg Jacob. These two were key members of former Vice President Mike Pence's brain trust.

The new developments are the clearest indication that Trump is in the investigation's sights. They suggest that the effort to find the truth will survive even if Republicans win the House soon and shut down the Jan. 6 committee. But the Justice Department would still be able to bring criminal charges against officials of the former Trump administration if it chooses to do so.

The Justice Department investigation is unfolding amid a controversy over texts missing from government phones used by the U.S. Secret Service and the Defense Department during the period around Jan. 6, 2021. CNN reported that the U.S. Secret Service might temporarily disable text messaging on employee mobile phones. This comes as the agency scrambles to respond to concerns it might have erased messages relevant to investigations into the day of the riot.

On Tuesday, Secret Service Director James Murray reportedly sent an agency-wide memo that informed employees that it was considering temporarily suspending the use of texts while the agency fixes gaps in how it retains those messages. Lately, the Secret Service has been under fire. It happened after the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general told Congress last month that the agency had deleted text messages from the time period surrounding Jan. 6, 2021 that had been requested by Congress.