The Congressional Subpoena Committee’s Brief Briefing on the Dec. 11 2016 Capitol Attack: “The Committee has no right to ask for an attorney’s office to testify”
WASHINGTON — The former President is trying to get around a subpoena that would require him to testify.
The suit filed Friday evening contends that, while former presidents have voluntarily agreed to provide testimony or documents in response to congressional subpoenas in the past, “no president or former president has ever been compelled to do so.”
Trump is going to testify before Congress and it is not possible for them to compel the President to do so, his attorney said in a statement.
There was a good faith effort to resolve the concerns consistent with Executive Branch prerogatives and separation of powers, but the panel refused to go for a political path, leaving President Trump with no choice but to involve the third branch, the judicial branch.
The committee declined to comment on the filing, which comes days before the the deadline set by the committee for Trump to begin cooperating. But the suit likely dooms the prospect of Trump ever having to testify, given that the committee is expected to disband at the end of the legislative session in January.
In his suit, Trump’s attorneys attack the subpoena as overly broad and frame it as an infringement of his First Amendment rights. They also argue other sources besides Trump could provide the same information the committee wants from him.
The scope of the committee’s request was expansive — pursuing documents from Sept. 1, 2020, two months before the election, to the present on the president’s communications with the groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys — as the panel looks to compile a historical record of the run-up to the Capitol attack, the event itself and the aftermath.
The 21st Century Capitol Firefighter’s Legacy, the Sicknick Estate, and the U.S. Senate’s Investigation into the January 6 Capitol Insurrection
The estate of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, is suing two rioters involved in the attack and former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in egging it on.
The lawsuit says that Trump instructed his supporters to fight like hell in Washington on January 6 and to show their strength before the Capitol riot.
Julian Khater and George Tanios, the two Capitol rioters named in the suit, pleaded guilty last summer to crimes related to the breach. They are set to be sentenced later this month.
During the riot, Khater took bear spray from Tanios’ backpack, spraying Sicknick and other officers in their faces and forcing them to recoil as rioters pushed forward toward the Capitol steps.
Sicknick suffered multiple strokes and died of natural causes the day after the Capitol breach, according to a 2021 report by DC’s chief medical examiner. The Washington Post quotes Francisco Diaz as telling them that all that transpired on January 6 played a role in his condition.
The Sicknick wrongful death allegation against Trump marks the most serious accusation to date that the former president was liable for the January 6 insurrection.
Special counsel Jack Smith led the investigation into Trump-supported bids to disrupt Joe Biden’s win. In recent weeks, prosecutors have taken new investigative steps, including obtaining documents from local election officials. Trump has not been charged with a crime.