Jan. Planners. 6 Trump rally subpoenaed by House panel

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WASHINGTON >> The House panel investigating the insurgency in the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas Tuesday to two Republican strategists and a Trump administration official about their involvement in planning and preparing one of the rallies that preceded attack.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, subpoenaed Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, strategists who advised Donald Trump Jr., and Ross Worthington, a former White House official who the committee said helped draft the speech. former President Donald Trump for the rally that directly preceded the attack on January 6.

“We have reason to believe that the individuals we are subpoenaing today have relevant information and we expect that they will join the more than 340 individuals who spoke to the Select Committee as we move forward to investigate the “This attack on our democracy and make sure nothing like it ever happens again,” Thompson said in a letter on Tuesday.

Worthington is a former Trump White House and campaign aide who served as a speechwriter and policy adviser. He previously worked for former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an ally of Trump.

Surabian is a GOP strategist who has worked with Trump’s eldest son, Trump Jr., former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and others within the Trump orbit. The committee says he and Schwartz, another strategist who worked with Trump Jr. and Bannon, interacted with people including Trump Jr. and his girlfriend and Trump fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle about the Jan. 6 rally at Ellipse.

A lawyer representing Surabian said his client would cooperate with the committee “within reason,” but he did not understand why the subpoena was issued in the first place.

“He had nothing to do with the events that took place in the Capital that day, nothing to do with organizing the rally that preceded it and was not on the payroll of the Trump campaign on November 15, 2020,” Daniel Bean, a lawyer representing Surabian, said. said in a statement.

Schwartz had no comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday, and Worthington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to withdraw the number on congressional certification on Jan. 6. Officials of elections across the country, including the courts, have repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.

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