WASHINGTON — Two allies of former President Donald J. Trump took steps Tuesday to try to stop the House committee investigating the Capitol attack as Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, faces a lawsuit against the panel and a House Republicans who played a key role in the efforts to undo the 2020 election, declined to meet with investigators.
Mr. Flynn, who served as an army officer for 33 years and has emerged as one of the most extreme voices in Mr. Trump’s drive to undo the election, filed a lawsuit against the Florida commission in an attempt to block her subpoenas.
“Like many Americans in late 2020, and to this day, General Flynn has expressed genuine concern about the integrity of the 2020 election,” his lawsuit said. “It is not a crime to hold such beliefs, whether they are right or wrong.”
The House committee has said it wants information from Mr Flynn as he attended a meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18 where participants discussed how voting machines were confiscated, a national emergency was declared, certain emergency national security powers were given. and the false notion that the elections were tainted by widespread fraud. That meeting came after Mr Flynn gave an interview to the right-wing media site Newsmax, in which he spoke about the alleged precedent for deploying military forces and declaring martial law to “repeat” the election.
Mr. Flynn’s lawsuit comes as Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican deeply involved in Trump’s pressure to undermine the election, said Tuesday he declined to meet the Jan. 6 committee.
Perry, the new chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, called the committee “illegitimate.”
Understand the US Capitol Riots
On January 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.
“I reject this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical left, who are desperately seeking a distraction from their abject failures of crushing inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan and the dire crisis that caused them to our border,” said Perry. wrote on Twitter.
The committee sent a letter Monday requesting testimony and documents from Mr. Perry, the first public step it has taken to obtain information from one of the Republican members of Congress closely involved in Mr. Trump to stay in power.
The committee asked Mr. Perry to meet with his investigators and voluntarily turn over all “relevant electronic or other communications” related to the lead-up to the Capitol riot, including his communications with the president and his legal team and others involved. were planning meetings for January 6 and objections in Congress to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. to confirm.
To date, the panel has been reluctant to issue subpoenas for sitting members of Congress, citing the deference and respect lawmakers in the chamber are expected to show one another. But Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, who chaired the panel, has pledged to take such a step if necessary.
“Representative Perry has information that is directly relevant to our investigation,” said Tim Mulvey, a committee spokesman. “The select committee prefers to collect relevant evidence from members together, but if members with directly relevant information refuse to cooperate and instead try to cover it up, the select committee will consider seeking such information using other tools.”
Mr. Flynn and Mr. Perry are among a small number of witnesses who did not cooperate with the panel. More than 300 witnesses have met investigators, most of them voluntarily without having received a subpoena.
There are consequences for those who refuse.
The House has voted twice to hold allies of Mr. Trump in criminal contempt of Congress and refer these cases to federal prosecutors. A grand jury has indicted Stephen K. Bannon, former Trump adviser, on charges ranging up to two years in prison and thousands of fines. Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, is awaiting a decision from federal prosecutors.
Mr Meadows and Mr Trump have filed a lawsuit to block the release of thousands of records after the former president claimed executive privilege on a wide variety of documents.
Some key witnesses have chosen the tactic of invoking their right to self-incrimination to avoid answering questions. Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department attorney who took part in Mr Trump’s plans to reverse the election, has said he would invoke the Fifth Amendment in response to questions.
Key figures in the January 6 survey
John Eastman, a lawyer who wrote a memo on how to reverse the election, has also cited the Fifth Amendment. A third potential witness, political agent Roger J. Stone Jr., last week invoked his right to self-incrimination on any question the committee asked.
Mr. Flynn joins a growing number of potential witnesses who have filed suit against the commission to block its subpoenas for records of their phone calls and text messages. Two other Trump allies, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and attorney Cleta Mitchell, also filed charges this week to block the subpoenas.
Four witnesses involved in organizing the rally that preceded the violence — Justin Caporale, Maggie Mulvaney, Megan Powers and Tim Unes — filed charges against Verizon in an attempt to prevent the company from giving cell phone data to the committee. pass around. Mr Eastman also filed a lawsuit alleging “a highly partisan” invasion of his privacy.
Ali Alexander, a conservative activist and organizer of rallies for the “Stop the Steal” movement that handed over thousands of pages of documents to the committee, accused the panel in a lawsuit of issuing “an illegal and exaggerated subpoena” that violated his rights to release violation. speech and privacy.
In his suit, Mr. Alexander said he was in contact with representatives Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama, all Republicans, in the run-up to January 6.
“In January, Mr. Alexander held an organizing call that may have members of Congress in attendance, and some of them were invited,” Mr Alexander’s suit read. “He can’t remember who attended because there was no roll call from attendees because the call was so big.”
Mr Perry joined Mr Gosar, Mr Biggs and Mr Brooks in a campaign to fight the election results.
In the weeks following the election, Mr. Perry compiled a dossier of voter fraud allegations and coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general with Mr. Clark. Mr. Perry also introduced Mr. Trump to Mr. Clark and communicated with Mr. Meadows through an encrypted app, Signal, the committee said.
Alan Feuer reporting contributed.