The Home committee investigating the Capitol rebellion mentioned it’s weighing its choices after former President Donald Trump did not adjust to a subpoena calling on him to look for a closed-door deposition on Monday.
In a press release, the committee’s chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., mentioned Trump was “hiding” days after he filed a lawsuit asking a federal court docket to deem the subpoena for his testimony invalid.
“Although the previous President initially instructed that he would testify earlier than the committee, he has since filed a lawsuit asking the courts to guard him from giving testimony,” Thompson and Cheney mentioned. “The reality is that Donald Trump, like a number of of his closest allies, is hiding from the Choose Committee’s investigation and refusing to do what greater than a thousand different witnesses have completed.”
Trump on Friday requested a court docket in Florida to dam enforcement of the subpoena, which demanded the previous president hand over information of any communications he could have had concerning extremist teams concerned within the Jan. 6 riot and any makes an attempt of his previously yr to contact witnesses testifying earlier than the committee. The subpoena additionally required that he sit for a deposition on Nov. 14.
“Donald Trump orchestrated a scheme to overturn a presidential election and block the switch of energy. He’s obligated to supply solutions to the American individuals,” Thompson and Cheney mentioned of their joint assertion. “Within the days forward, the committee will consider subsequent steps within the litigation and concerning the previous President’s noncompliance.”
Thompson later advised NBC Information that holding Trump in contempt of Congress “may very well be an possibility.”
“The very first thing we’ll do is see how we tackle the lawsuit. And sooner or later, after that, we’ll determine the trail ahead,” he mentioned.
The panel earlier this month gave Trump additional time to supply paperwork after saying it hadn’t acquired the requested information from him.
Of their assertion Monday, the committee’s leaders mentioned Trump’s attorneys “have made no try to barter an look of any kind,” and that his lawsuit “parades out most of the similar arguments that courts have rejected repeatedly over the past yr.”
NBC Information has reached out to one in every of Trump’s legal professionals for remark.
In Friday’s lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Court docket of the Southern District of Florida, Trump’s legal professionals argued that he has “absolute testimonial immunity” from being compelled to look earlier than Congress and that the panel lacked the constitutional authority to concern the subpoena within the first place.
Additionally they argued that the subpoena served a partisan function “to punish President Trump, and to attain political factors.”
The Jan. 6 committee has issued dozens of subpoenas in its probe, and several other recipients have mounted unsuccessful authorized challenges questioning the legitimacy of the Home panel and its investigation.
The committee is getting nearer to issuing its ultimate report. Earlier this month, employees members of the panel had been knowledgeable that the report would focus largely on Trump and far much less on findings about failures by the FBI and different legislation enforcement companies within the lead as much as the assault, three sources accustomed to the committee’s work advised NBC Information.
The sources added that the plan was not set in stone and will nonetheless change.
Kyle Stewart, Ali Vitali and Kate Santaliz contributed.
