A lawsuit has been filed by four people who reportedly helped organize the Jan. 6 rally near the White House in a bid to stop Verizon from releasing cellphone information to the congressional select committee probing the attack at the Capitol, Politico is reporting.
Justin Caporale, Tim Unes, Megan Powers, and Maggie Mulvaney maintain the panel doesn’t have the authority to obtain the data.
The Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena to Verizon, "lacks a lawful purpose and seeks to invade the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to privacy and to confidential political communications," says the suit filed Monday in the U.S. district court in New Jersey.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had warned tech companies in August that Republicans "will not forget" if they turn over phone and email records to the committee investigating the Capitol attack, The Hill had reported.
The letter from McCarthy was in response to a request from the committee sent to 35 telephone, email, and social media companies to preserve records that it said could be relevant to its investigation.
McCarthy said that if the companies comply with the request, it "would put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democratic politicians."
The four plaintiffs received a letter from Verizon earlier this month informing them that the company had been subpoenaed by the committee for their respective records, ABC News reported.
In their suit, the plaintiffs maintain they have sat for lengthy interviews and provided thousands of documents to the panel.
"The plaintiffs answered every single question about what happened at the event, who spoke, who the plaintiffs spoke with, and when," the lawsuit says. "If Congress wanted to know anything more about the plaintiffs’ brief involvement with the events it is allegedly investigating, it needed only have asked.
"The plaintiffs are four private citizens who were not involved in any federal government activities or programs," the suit says. "They have only one apparent connection to the matter Congress claims to be investigating: They served as vendors to help staff a peaceful, lawful, orderly, and patriotic assembly to promote First Amendment-protected speech."
According to Politico, Unes is head of a company called Event Strategies and his associate Caporale was listed as "project manager" for the event. Powers is listed in paperwork as an "operations manager" and Maggie Mulvaney, the niece of former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, was described as "VIP Lead" for the rally in official paperwork.
"The subpoenas seek a range of records that include materials dealing with the planning, funding, and participation in the events and bus tours; social media activity of associated entities; and communications with or involvement of Trump administration officials and lawmakers," the committee announced in September, Politico said.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.