On Tuesday, the Democrat-led House Select Committee investigated the January 6th breach of the U.S. Capitol announced it had subpoenaed 10 officials who served within President Donald Trump’s administration, including senior advisor Stephen Miller and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
Along with Miller and McEnany, the committee announced it had issued subpoenas to White House staffers Nicholas Luna, Molly Michael, Benjamin Williamson, Christopher Liddell, John McEntee and Cassidy Hutchinson. The committee also subpoenaed Keith Kellogg, who served as Vice President Pence’s National Security Advisor, and Kenneth Klukowski, who served as Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark.
In a statement committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said, “The Select Committee wants to learn every detail of what went on in the White House on January 6th and in the days beforehand.”
“We need to know precisely what role the former President and his aides played in efforts to stop the counting of the electoral votes and if they were in touch with anyone outside the White House attempting to overturn the outcome of the election,” Thompson added. “We believe the witnesses subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to comply fully with the Select Committee’s investigation as we work to get answers for the American people, make recommendations on changes to the law to protect our democracy, and help ensure that nothing like January 6th ever happens again.”
The committee claimed Miller “by his own account participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election” and called on state legislatures to appoint alternate sets of state electors as the Trump campaign argued against state’s certifying their elections and appointing electors who would cast electoral votes for Joe Biden.
The committee also said McEnany “made multiple public statements from the White House and elsewhere about purported fraud in the November 2020 election” and was present with Trump when demonstrators entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The set of ten subpoenas comes a day after the House committee announced it had issued subpoenas for six individuals associated with Trump’s campaign, including retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn. Others subpoenaed included William Stepien, Jason Miller, Angea McCallum, John Eastman and Bernard Kerik.
These 16 new subpoenas come in the weeks after the committee subpoenaed another Trump associate, Steve Bannon. Thus far, Bannon has signaled he will not comply with the subpoena, with his lawyer stating he will not testify or provide documents until an agreement is reached between the committee and Trump on executive privilege, or a court gives guidance on the situation.
In October, a member of the House committee called for U.S. Marshalls to arrest Bannon and any others who defy the congressional subpoenas. So far the Department of Justice has not indicated whether it will make arrests or have prosecutors pursue criminal contempt charges.
