Lawmakers on the panel spent months weighing whether to subpoena their Republican colleagues, grappling with whether they had the constitutional right to do so, and debating whether to set such a precedent.
And with hearings in less than a month, the panel is facing a ticking clock to get all the information it can.
“The Select Committee has been informed that several of our colleagues have information relevant to our investigation of the January 6 attack and the events leading up to it,” the panel’s chairman, Mississippi Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, said in a statement. declaration. “Before we hold our hearings next month, we wanted to give members the opportunity to voluntarily discuss these matters with the committee.”
“Unfortunately, those who received subpoenas today have refused and we are forced to take this step to ensure that the commission uncovers facts related to January 6,” he continued. “We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done.”
The commission has scheduled the impeachment of members of Congress for the end of May.
DailyExpertNews has contacted the five congressmen for comment.
In its first letter to McCarthy in January, the panel made it clear that it wanted to question him about his communications with former President Donald Trump, White House staff and others in the week following the January 6 attack, “particularly regarding to President Trump’s state of mind at the time.”
The committee also wanted to understand how McCarthy’s public comments since the attack had changed over time from critical to in defense of Trump, and wondered if Trump pressured him to change his tone when the pair broke up in late January. 2021 met.
Since the panel’s letter to McCarthy, new audio revealed that in the days following the January 6 uprising, the minority leader had considered asking Trump to resign. Audio also revealed that McCarthy told Republican lawmakers in a private conference call that Trump admitted to bearing some responsibility for the deadly attack.
The panel first contacted Jordan, one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, in December to learn more about communications he had with Trump on January 6 and with Trump allies in the days leading up to the announcement. the war were stationed in the war room of the Willard Hotel. to the attack.
Jordan and Trump spoke on the phone on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, while Trump was in the White House residence, White House call records held by the panel, first reported by DailyExpertNews, showed. Since Jordan first admitted to speaking to Trump on the phone that day, the Ohio Republican and Trump loyalist has brushed aside questions about this or been inconsistent in his answers.
Jordan has also previously been identified as one of the lawmakers who texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who owns the commission. The message Jordan sent to Meadows on Jan. 5, 2021 outlined a legal theory that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to stand in the way of certifying the 2020 election.
Jordan was selected by McCarthy as one of five GOP members on the Jan. 6 committee in July, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected McCarthy’s selection of Jordan, along with GOP Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, saying their appointments would impact may be on the “integrity of the investigation.” Pelosi’s decision prompted McCarthy to withdraw all five members, further worsening the willingness between the two sides to work together, and led Pelosi to select GOP representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to join the panel. to serve.
Perry was the first lawmaker whose commission sought voluntary cooperation because of the key role he played in trying to help Trump undermine the 2020 election. Text messages obtained by DailyExpertNews that came out after the panel’s initial letter have filled significant gaps about the role Perry played at nearly every turn in planning to roll back or delay certification of the 2020 election.
Text messages selectively provided by Meadows to the commission show that Perry insisted that the country’s top intelligence official investigate baseless conspiracy theories and was working to replace the acting US Attorney General with an acolyte who was willing to make Trump’s request.
“From an Intel friend: DNI must order the NSA to immediately seize and search international communications related to Dominion,” Perry wrote to Meadows on Nov. 12, 2020, just five days after Joe Biden’s election. were written out.
In the text, which had not previously been reported, Perry appeared to urge Meadows to get John Ratcliffe, then director of national intelligence, to order the National Security Agency to investigate debunked claims that Dominion voting machines are being used by China. were hacked.
A recent court filing also revealed how Perry played a key role in strategizing with Trump allies about wasting electoral votes in states that Trump lost.
In testimony released in April, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide, told House investigators about Perry’s role in White House strategy sessions.
“Mr. Perry is one that immediately comes to mind when I remember him being there physically and then pushing back,” said Hutchinson, who described the Pennsylvania Republican clashing with Trump White House counsel over the election. question whether the plan for states to file alternative voter lists was legally sound.
A text dated Nov. 21, 2020 reveals that Meadows even went through Perry to get in touch with local lawmakers in his state.
“Can you send me the number of the speaker and leader of PA Legislature. POTUS wants to chat with them,” Meadows wrote to Perry.
The lyrics also reveal that Perry acted as an intermediary between Meadows and Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, a relatively obscure official who emerged as a central figure in Trump’s election campaign after the former president nearly named him acting attorney General, days before the US Capitol riot. †
The reports link Perry, Clark, and the Trump-led effort to use the Justice Department to undo the election.
Last year, the Senate impeached Perry for his role in promoting Trump’s electoral fraud plots.
Text messages held by the panel reveal that Perry texted Meadows multiple times to request that the conversation be moved to the encrypted messaging app Signal or to alert Meadows to a message he had sent on the encrypted platform.
Such a move could put the exchange out of the commission’s reach because Signal does not collect or store user data, making it more difficult to provide that information to outside entities, including law enforcement and congressional investigators, even under subpoena.
The panel reached out to Biggs earlier this month to discuss his participation in White House and remote planning meetings on “various aspects of Jan 6 planning.”
Seeking voluntary cooperation from Biggs, the committee said it wanted to understand “exactly” what he knew before the Jan. 6 violence, “about the purposes, planning and expectations for the Capitol march.”
Biggs also communicated with Meadows about efforts to convince state lawmakers that the 2020 election had been stolen, and sought their help in undoing the election, according to notices held by the committee.
Brooks caught the attention of the committee after revealing that Trump had repeatedly asked him to work to rescind the 2020 election and remove Biden from office.
This story was updated Thursday with additional developments.
