US House Jan 6 committee subpoenas 6 more Trump associates in probe into Capitol riot

WASHINGTON - The US House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6 Capitol riot issued subpoenas Monday to six associates of former President Donald Trump, asking them to provide documents related to their involvement in the riot and appear for depositions.

"In the days before the January 6th attack, the former president's closest allies and advisers drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes," the committee's chair, Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson said.

Those who were subpoenaed included Bill Stepien, manager of Trump's 2020 reelection campaign; Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign; Angela McCallum, national executive assistant to the campaign; John Eastman, a lawyer who advised the former president; Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to Trump who talked with the former president ahead of the insurrection; and Bernard Kerik, who the Select Committee said paid for hotel rooms that were used as command centers in the lead-up to Jan 6.

"The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all," Thompson added.

He told the Trump associates that the panel now possesses "credible evidence" of their participation in Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in the election, citing ways in which each of them tried to promote the former president's claims.

The subpoenas came as the panel has already demanded documents and testimony from several other Trump advisers. Among them was one of Trump's staunchest allies, Steve Bannon, whom the House voted last month to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with his subpoena.

Others facing subpoenas are former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and administration aides Kashyap Patel and Dan Scavino. They were reportedly "engaging" with the investigators.

Trump has been fighting the probe in court, claiming to insert his executive privileges to shield some of the records from Congress. President Biden has refused to grant Trump those privileges in the context of the probe, saying it would otherwise not be in the best interest of the nation.