Jan 6 House Committee Probing Capitol Riot Issues Subpoenas 6 Trump Aides

Six additional subpoenas were issued Friday in connection with the Jan. 6 US Capitol riot.

The ones who have been subpoenaed were part of the team that planned the rallies on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 leading up to the riot, reported CNN. One of them is Max Miller, an ex-aide to former US President Donald Trump. Miller is currently an Ohio congressional candidate.

In the subpoena letter for Miller, Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, said that he was targeted because he attended a Jan. 4 meeting with Trump in a private White House dining room about who should speak at the rally on Jan. 6 morning. Thompson said that Miller also interacted with the then-acting director of the National Park Service and the then deputy secretary of the interior to use force against officials, who had refused to allow the rally to take place on the Ellipse, Washington, to reverse course, according to The Guardian.

Miller tweeted last week saying that he would accept the subpoena, but he also said that as a member of the House, one of his first acts would be to help disband the "partisan committee that has weaponized its powers against innocent Americans."

Robert "Bobby" Peede Jr., who also met Trump on Jan. 4 to discuss the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse, also received a subpoena. According to the committee, Brian Jack, the director of political affairs for Trump, has been subpoenaed too. He is said to have reached out to several Congress members on behalf of the former President to ask them to speak at the rally on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse. Bryan Lewis, whose purpose was to urge Congress to invalidate electoral votes, and had a rally permit for outside the US Capitol on the day of the attack, also got a subpoena.

The other subpoena recipient is Ed Martin, who was involved in the financing of the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse that happened right before the riot. Kimberly Fletcher, who helped in organizing the Jan. 5 rally at Freedom Plaza and the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse, also got a subpoena.

Thompson said that some of the witnesses who were subpoenaed last week apparently worked to stage the rallies on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, and "some appeared to have had direct communication with the former President regarding the rally at the Ellipse directly preceding the attack on the US Capitol."

Depositions have been scheduled throughout the beginning of January next year, but before that, the six individuals need to hand over documents to the committee on Dec. 23. Apart from these subpoenas, the committee has already issued several subpoenas to people who were involved in the rally planning and financing that directly preceded the Jan. 6 riot.

Meanwhile, Peter Navarro, a former White House trade adviser, has declined to comply with a subpoena for documents related to the Trump administration's response to the pandemic that has taken lives of nearly 800,000 people in the US, according to Reuters.

The House Select Subcommittee issued the subpoena last month in connection with its investigation of whether officials who worked under Trump mishandled the federal response to coronavirus by interfering with its own health agency's work. Navarro, who was responsible for procurement in the coronavirus response, among other things, said in a letter to the subcommittee that he would not cooperate because Trump told him to "protect executive privilege."