Ene. 6 panel subpoena 6 that helped plan Trump’s rallies

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The House committee investigating the insurgency in the Capitol on Jan. 6 is subpoenaing six other people the panel says were involved in the organization and planning of rallies aimed at overthrowing Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press

December 11, 2021, 12:14 AM

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WASHINGTON-The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurgency in the Capitol is subpoenaing six people the panel says were involved in organizing and planning rallies aimed at overthrowing Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential defeat election.

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Said some worked to stage the events and “some appear to have had direct communication” with former President Trump as they planned the rallies.

Subpoenas were issued to Robert “Bobby” Peede Jr. and Max Miller, who according to the committee met with Trump in his private dining room on Jan. 4; Brian Jack, Trump’s political director at the time; and rally organizers Bryan Lewis, Ed Martin and Kimberly Fletcher.

The subpoenas came because rallies before and during the Jan. 6 unrest became the main focus of the committee’s investigation. Lawmakers told the panel they wanted to know who funded the events and whether the organizers were in close contact with the White House and members of Congress as they planned the events.

At the biggest rally on Jan. 6, at the Ellipse near the White House, Trump scolded the crowd and told them to “fight like hell.” He said he would go to the Capitol with them, but he eventually returned to the White House.

Hundreds of his supporters who headed to the Capitol violently pushed police, smashed windows and doors and delayed certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the White House.

Miller, a former Trump aide running for Congress in Ohio, said on Twitter on Thursday that he received notice that he would be subpoenaed and would accept it but “he will also defend my rights.”

“In taking office, I will make sure one of my first votes is to disband this partisan committee that has armed its powers against innocent Americans,” Miller tweeted.

The committee has already subpoenaed more than a dozen other rally organizers, including some who complied with panel requests for documents and sat down for deposits. But the panel links witnesses who were subpoenaed on Friday more directly to Trump and the White House.

In letters that included subpoenas to Miller and Peede, Thompson said documents obtained by the committee show the two men had lunch on Jan. 4 with Trump and Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign official who -subpoena by the panel, in the president’s private dining room.

“The discussion centered on who the president wanted to speak at the rally,” Thompson wrote.

In a letter to Jack, who is now a political aide to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Thompson wrote that Jack reached out on Trump’s behalf to several members of Congress to ask them to speak at the rally. One of those members, Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, received and spoke.

The committee has now announced nearly 50 subpoenas, and has issued an anonymous number of more subpoenas privately. Most of those witnesses have complied, so far, and the panel has interviewed nearly 300 people who were somehow connected to the violent siege.

Some of Trump’s closest allies have refused to comply, however, or said they would plead their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The committee will vote Monday to recommend contempt cases against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after he reversed an initial effort to comply and said he would reject his subpoena.

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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Lisa Mascaro and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

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