The parliamentary inquiry into the storming of the US Capitol will summon former President Donald Trump. The members of the committee voted unanimously for this on Thursday in a public meeting. Committee chair Bennie Thompson said the panel had a duty to seek a statement from Trump.
The evidence presented so far has shown that “the central cause of January 6th was one man – Donald Trump,” said Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, Deputy Committee Chair, in the subpoena. “We have an obligation to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion,” Cheney continued.
Previously, the congressional committee tried to hold Trump more responsible for the attack with new evidence.
The session included video footage of Trump’s longtime confidante Roger Stone, a notorious political adviser. Stone says ahead of the November 2020 presidential election that he doesn’t want to wait for all the votes to be counted. “Let’s go straight to the violence.” Reference was also made to Stone’s connections to the extremist groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. Members of these groups were charged with seditious conspiracy after the Capitol storm.
If Trump doesn’t obey the subpoena, the House of Representatives could report him to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress. Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon, for example, has already been convicted for this. However, time is running out. A new House of Representatives will be elected on November 8th. The committee must complete its work by the end of the year – before the newly elected House of Representatives begins its work in January. Even if Trump should follow the subpoena, he can refuse to testify.
In a first reaction, Trump did not comment on how he wanted to proceed, but only criticized the timing of the subpoena. In a post on his in-house online network Truth Social, he asked why the committee didn’t ask him months ago to testify, but waited until the end. At the same time, he reiterated his claims, which had been refuted by many courts, about “massive falsification” in the presidential election – “the reason for what happened on January 6”.
The attack on the Capitol came right after Trump’s appearance, during which the then US President stirred up crowds of his supporters with false claims that his election victory against challenger Joe Biden had been stolen from him. Trump supporters violently stormed the seat of parliament on January 6, 2021. Congress met there to formally confirm Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Five people died as a result of the riots.
