Why not also subpoena that coward Vice President Mike Pence who has not come forward to vountarily testify to the January 6 Committee? If he told the truth and didn’t assert any privileges, he could tell the committee everything they want to know because he was a participant in every relevant event.
Pence did not testify because he was part of the coup plot conspiracy, right up to the end when he decided that he just coud not go through with the coup plot. He still has legal liabiity for his participation in the coup plot (but woud have been given immunity by the committee for his full testimony).
The January 6 Committee voted unanimously to subpoena Donald Trump for his testimony under oath, noting that so many of his closest advisors and aids have asserted their Fifth Amendment privilege before the committee, maintaining a cover-up.
Donald Trump will not testify under oath. A lawsuit to enforce the congressional subpoena woud extend beyond the end of the term of this Congress. This is political theater. If the committee was serious about deposing Trump they would have taken this action much earlier when there was enough time to enforce a congressional subpoena.
UPDATE: The committee has legitimate concerns about not compromising the DOJ investigation (à la Oliver North). I would much rather see Trump subpoenaed to testify before the criminal grand jury investigating the January 6 insurrection. He would plead the Fifth to every question, but still.
As Rep.Jamie Raskin just explained on MSNBC, the Committee will have every right to draw a negative inference from Trump’s refusal to testify in response to its subpoena. SCOTUS has ruled 9-0 that, outside the context of a criminal trial, that’s wholly proper.
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) October 14, 2022
All the more reason for voters to remove the 147 Republican lawmakers who still objected to the election results even after the Capitol attack, providing aid and comfort to the MAGA/QAnon violent insurrectionists. All of them should be disqualified from serving in office under Section 3 of th 14th Amendment. Voters need to elect a Democratic Congress so that these anti-democracy insurrectionists do not win, and a reconstituted January 6 Committee can continue its investigation in the next Congress.
NBC News reports, Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena former President Donald Trump:
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol voted unanimously Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump.
Members of the panel, which held what was expected to be its final hearing before the midterm elections Thursday, had previously said that they were still considering seeking an interview with Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence. Sources familiar with the committee’s plans told NBC News of the subpoena earlier Thursday.
The resolution to subpoena Trump passed with the support of all members, 9-0.
The subpoena comes more than a year after the committee began investigating the insurrection and despite multiple members of Congress previously acknowledging that it was unlikely Trump would comply.
Subpoenaing the former president had been under consideration for a while and has been an active topic of discussion among committee members. On his way to the hearing, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters the panel had not yet ruled out a subpoena for Trump. He said at the start of the hearing that the committee would take a vote “based on new evidence.”
Thompson clarified at the beginning of Thursday’s hearing that it was technically a formal committee business meeting, so that, in addition to presenting evidence, “We can potentially hold a committee vote on further investigative action based upon that evidence.”
The panel is on a tight timeframe — the subpoena will expire at the end of this congressional term.
In its wide-ranging investigation, the panel has already conducted more than 1,000 interviews and depositions. It has also received hundreds of thousands of documents and some 100 subpoenas are known to have been issued.
Thursday’s hearing once again placed Trump at the center of plans to overturn the election, ultimately leading to the violence on Jan. 6, committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in her opening statement.
“None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it,” she said. “Today, we will focus on President Trump’s state of mind, his intent, his motivations, and how he spurred others to do his bidding. And how another Jan. 6 could happen again if we do not take necessary action to prevent it.”
Cheney also said that the committee “may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice,” though she said that lawmakers “recognize that our role is not to make decisions regarding prosecution.”
Trump would not be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. Several sitting and former presidents and vice presidents have also testified before congressional committees, including Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Gerald R. Ford.
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Thompson had previously suggested that Thursday would be the committee’s final hearing, but several of its members recently have said that might not be the case.
When asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether there will be additional hearings, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., said the investigation “has its own life, and we keep finding new information.”