Former President Donald Trump was subpoenaed to appear before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 2021 riots at the Capitol..Trump was requested to appear on November 14 at 10 am, either in person in the US Capitol or via video conference, and provide records regarding his actions on that day..The committee is seeking documents and communications between Trump and aides, staff and colleagues from Signal, an encrypted messaging app..The committee’s vice-chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), said the subpoena would demand Trump’s testimony and also relevant documents about his involvement in the events that preceded the January 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob on the Capitol. .The committee detailed its case Trump is singularly responsible for the violence that occurred that day, inciting his supporters with claims of election fraud and engineering efforts to subvert Joe Biden’s victory and disrupt the transfer of power..Trump is not the first US president to be subpoenaed to appear before an investigating committee..In 1953, Harry Truman was subpoenaed, but declined to appear, citing a potential encroachment on the separation of powers..Trump publicly teased about voluntarily appearing before the select committee, however, it's unlikely the panel could force him to appear if he opts to challenge their subpoena. .Trump also said he would sit for a TV interview, if it was shown, in whole, on CNN..Chad Pergram, senior congressional correspondent at FOX News, questions the timing..“If this committee is so serious, why did it wait so long to make that request,” said Pergram, adding the Republicans will likely dissolve the committee if it wins the House in the mid-term elections on November 8..“The hyper-produced TV hearing sometimes failed to reveal groundbreaking information and the hearings never resonated with voters as a key campaign issue in the mid-term elections.”.The subpoena is likely to kick off weeks of additional legal wrangling involving the 45th president, who is already embroiled in a court fight with the Justice Department over classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort in August, reports The New York Post..Prior to the subpoena being issued, Trump hired a firm to engage with the January 6 select committee, according to POLITICO..“The firm, The Dhillon Law Group, already represents multiple witnesses who have appeared before the committee, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump ally Seb Gorka and Women for America First co-founder Amy Kremer,” said POLITICO..“A person familiar with the situation said it is now being tasked with negotiating the terms of the Trump subpoena, which the committee voted to issue last week.”.Harmeet Dhillon helmed litigations related to other conservative causes, including pushing back on policies that shut down schools, churches and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. .Dhillon was also critical of previous select committee and Justice Department grand jury subpoenas to her other clients.
