Former President Donald Trump could be called to testify before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told The Guardian he would issue subpoenas to some senior members of the previous administration and vowed he would take the matter to court if they resist.
"Nothing is off limits," Thompson told The Guardian.
On the question of issuing a subpoena to Trump, Thompson told PBS on July 6 that "we have the subpoena authority."
"If the facts themselves lead us to any individual, we will not hesitate to bring them before the committee,” he told PBS.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., created the committee to probe the events surrounding the Jan. 6 assault, in which demonstrators protesting the November election results stormed the Capitol.
The committee, put in place by Pelosi after the Senate failed to pass the Jan. 6 Commission, will hold its first hearing Tuesday. The speaker has allowed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to name just five Republicans on the 12-member committee, and she has the authority to veto selections.
Democrats appear determined to put Trump at the center of their investigation.
Thompson told The Guardian he was interested in speaking to anyone who talked with the then-president on Jan. 6. The chairman especially was interested in learning about a phone call between Trump and McCarthy while the Capitol attack was ongoing.
"There will not be a reluctance on the part of the committee to pursue it," Thompson said of the call. "The committee will want to know if there is a record of what was said."
Thompson said he was willing to seek depositions from other members of Congress who might have been involved in the Capitol assault.
"The issues of Jan. 6 are one of the most salient challenges we have as a nation, to make sure that this democracy does not fall prey to people who don't really identify with democracy," Thompson said.
Ivanka Trump, the former president’s oldest daughter, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows could be among people subpoenaed to appear.
"If somebody spoke to the president on Jan. 6, I think it would be important for our committee to know what was said. I can't imagine you talk about anything else to the president on Jan. 6," Thompson told The Guardian.
Trump administration officials who refuse to appear before the committee, citing executive privilege, would face subpoenas and lawsuits, Thompson said.
The committee chairman said he expected the committee and senior House investigators to meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland, but insisted his investigation would not overlap with existing criminal probes opened by the justice department and the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
"We don’t want to get in the way of indictments," Thompson told The Guardian. "But I think there could be some sharing of information that could be germane to our investigation, just like other committees have negotiated in the past."
The committee has no deadline by which to submit a report, Thompson said, and warned against any Republican delay tactics.
"Notwithstanding elections next year, we will not stop until our investigation is complete," Thompson said.
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