Liz Cheney says January 6 committee will issue Trump subpoena ‘shortly’

CNN
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GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol will issue a subpoena to former President Donald Trump “shortly” to seek his testimony under oath as well as documents.

Speaking at the Harvard Institute of Politics Tuesday, the committee’s vice chair did not commit to what the panel will do if Trump does not comply with the subpoena but said “we’ll take the steps we need to take.”

“There was no disagreement on the committee,” the Wyoming Republican said, explaining how the panel came to the decision to subpoena Trump.

“We all felt that our obligation is to seek his testimony, that the American people deserve to hear directly from him, that it has to be under oath, that he has to be held accountable. And so we’ll be issuing the subpoena shortly both for his testimony under oath as well as for documents. And we’ll take whatever next steps we have to take, you know, assuming that he will fulfill his legal obligation and honor the subpoena, but if that doesn’t happen, then we’ll take the steps we need to take after that, but I don’t want to go too far down that path at this point.”

Committee members unanimously voted to subpoena Trump last week in the panel’s final hearing before the midterm election, but the official subpoena has not been issued. The vote marked a significant escalation by the panel that will set up a showdown with the former President.

It is not expected that Trump will comply with the subpoena, but the action serves as a way for the committee to set down a marker and show that it wants information directly from Trump as it investigates the attack.

The subpoena will surely trigger a prolonged court battle over Trump’s possible compliance, which could even outlast the committee itself. Republicans have pledged to shut down the panel if they win the House majority in the midterm elections next month.