Trump rally organizers subpoenaed by panel
WASHINGTON – A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection subpoenaed 11 officials who helped plan rallies in support of former President Donald Trump before the violent attack, including the massive event on the day of the siege at which the president told his supporters to “fight like hell.”
The announcement followed a first round of subpoenas last week that targeted former White House and administration officials who were in contact with Trump before and during the insurrection.
The committee said in a release Wednesday that the subpoenas are part of the panel’s efforts to collect information from the organizers “and their associated entities on the planning, organization, and funding of those events.” Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the committee, said “the inquiry includes examination of how various individuals and entities coordinated their activities.”
In letters to those who were subpoenaed, Thompson demands that the officials provide documents to the panel by Oct. 13 and appear at separate depositions that the committee has scheduled from late October through the beginning of November.
Thompson cites in the letters efforts by representatives of the group Women for America First to organize the rally on Jan. 6 and to collectively communicate with senior White House officials. The subpoenas also mention other events the group planned in the weeks between Trump’s November election defeat and the January attack.
The panel has ramped up its investigation in recent weeks as it attempts to dissect the origins of the insurrection by Trump’s supporters and find ways to prevent it from ever happening again. The Trump loyalists beat and injured police as they battled their way inside the building, destroyed property and sent lawmakers running for their lives.
In July, the committee held an emotional first hearing with four police officers who battled the insurrectionists and were injured and verbally abused as the rioters broke into the building and repeated Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud.