Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Trump, Accusing Former President of ‘Personally Orchestrating’ Effort to Overturn 2020 Election

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has officially sent a subpoena to former President Donald Trump, demanding a broad list of evidence documenting both the communications and scheming that occurred after the 2020 presidential election and leading up to the events of Jan. 6, but also the efforts to interfere in the committee’s work by allegedly attempting to contact and influence various witnesses.

A press release posted on the committee’s website stated that the subpoena requires Trump to produce the requested documents by Nov. 4 and to appear for a sworn deposition “beginning on or about November 14.”

The subpoena was sent to Trump along with a letter from Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).

“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” they wrote.

The letter listed ten separate bullet points detailing multiple examples of Trump’s “false allegations of fraud” and efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress, and Republican elected officials in various states to support his baseless claims, and noted that Trump took these actions despite courts and his own advisers telling him his claims had no merit:

You took all of these actions despite the rulings of more than 60 courts rejecting your election fraud claims and other challenges to the legality of the 2020 presidential election, despite having specific and detailed information from the Justice Department and your senior campaign staff informing you that your election claims were false, and despite your obligation as President to ensure that the laws of our nation are faithfully executed. In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself.

Moreover, the letter argued, sending a subpoena to a former president was not an unprecedented action, listing multiple historic examples where this had happened before:

Former Presidents John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Gerald Ford each testified before Congress after they left office. President Roosevelt explained during his congressional testimony, ‘an ex-President is merely a citizen of the United States, like any other citizen, and it is his plain duty to try to help this committee or respond to its invitation.’ Even sitting Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Gerald Ford, also testified before Congress. Further, both former and sitting presidents including Presidents Nixon, Tyler, and Quincy Adams, have provided evidence in response to congressional subpoenas.

The committee is “considering multiple legislative recommendations intended to provide further assurance that no future President could succeed at anything remotely similar to the unlawful steps you took to overturn the election,” the letter noted, informing Trump that the testimony and evidence requested by the subpoena “would further inform” this work.

The subpoena itself requested records of phone calls, text messages, and communications sent via Signal or another app that Trump “placed or received by you or at your direction on Jan. 6, 2021, including records of any calls you joined as an active or passive participant,” recognizing Trump’s well-documented habit of having various aides make calls for him on their own cell phones.

Other requests included any communications Trump had with members of Congress from Dec. 18, 2020 to Jan. 6, 2021 related to the 2020 election; all photos and video taken on Jan. 6, 2021; any documents or communications that referred to the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers; were related to any efforts to pressure state legislators to reject the certification of Electoral College votes or to encourage anyone to make efforts to nominate alternative slates of electors; documents or communications referring to Pence’s role before the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021; efforts to encourage people to travel to Washington, D.C. to attend Trump’s rally at the Ellipse; any contact or efforts to contact other witnesses who have appeared or were expected to appear before the committee; and more.

The subpoena specifically requests communications between Trump and multiple individuals who have been key figures in the events leading up to Jan. 6 and its aftermath, including Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Boris Epshteyn, Christina Bobb, Cleta Mitchell, and Patrick Byrne.

Read the letter and subpoena to Trump below:

Watch the video above, via CNN.

This is a breaking story and has been updated with additional information.