Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena Trump

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol votes to subpoena former President Donald Trump.

The House Jan. 6 committee voted Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump for documents and testimony at the conclusion of the panel’s final hearing before the midterm elections.

The unanimous vote marks an escalation in the committee’s efforts to obtain testimony from the former President, though at this late stage, it’s unlikely that Trump would comply with the subpoena – and the committee likely doesn’t have time for a lengthy court fight. 

It’s rare but not without precedent for Congress to subpoena sitting and former presidents for testimony.

House Select Committee Char Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney argued the committee needed to hear from Trump to tell the most complete story it can about the Jan. 6 riot.

Cheney said more than 30 witnesses have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, including some who communicated with Trump. She noted that others, like Steve Bannon, have been held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify – and Bannon was convicted after the Justice Department indicted him – but argued the committee couldn’t wait for the Justice Department to obtain information from those recalcitrant witnesses. 

“At some point, the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing,” Cheney said. “But our duty today is to our country and our children and our Constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to the answers, so we can act now to protect our republic,” she said.

Jan. 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said the panel’s decision to vote to subpoena former President Donald Trump is important for the American people.

Thompson said the committee has a “obligation” to see Trump’s testimony, though it recognizes that the subpoena of a former President is a “serious and extraordinary action.”

“That’s why we want to take this step in full view of the American people,” he added.

“There’s precedent in American history to congress to compel the testimony of a President. There is also precedent for presidents to provide testimony and documentary evidence to congressional investigators,” Thompson said.

Elaine Chao, who resigned from her post as former President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Transportation a day after the insurrection, spoke in personal terms about her disgust over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack when she testified to the committee. 

“And at a particular point, the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy. I came as an immigrant to this country. I believe in this country. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I believe in democracy. And so I was — it was a decision that I made on my own,” she said. 

CNN reported in August that Chao, who is also the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, had met with the committee. But after condemning the attack in her resignation letter in early 2021, Chao had largely stayed out of the national spotlight, with her recent comments to the committee providing fresh insight into her thinking on the deadly attack. 

Chao’s resignation came the same day that Betsy DeVos, who served as Trump’s Education secretary, also resigned from her post, calling the riot “unconscionable for our country.” 

The Jan. 6 select committee aired previously unseen footage from Fort McNair, the DC-area Army base where congressional leaders took refuge during the insurrection and scrambled to respond to the unfolding crisis. 

Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said during the hearing that the footage shows how Trump administration officials and congressional leaders worked around then-President Donald Trump to put down the riot that he had incited.

The footage shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top officials working the phones and coordinating with Trump Cabinet members and other officials to secure the resources needed to quell the insurrection and secure the Capitol.

The footage also showed two phone calls between Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who took on an impromptu leadership role on January 6, coordinating the emergency response.

The new footage showed Schumer dressing down then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. During their heated phone call, Schumer implored Rosen to intervene directly with Trump, and tell Trump to call off the mob. During the call, Pelosi told Rosen that the pro-Trump rioters were “breaking the law… at the instigation of the President of the United States.”

“The concern that we have for personal safety transcends everything,” Pelosi told Rosen.

Pelosi is seen on the phone with then-Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, discussing getting the state’s National Guard dispatched to the Capitol.

During the hearing, the panel labeled the footage as showing lawmakers at an “undisclosed location.” It has been public knowledge since January 6, 2021, that senior congressional leaders from both parties took refuge at Fort McNair, an Army base in DC, while the Capitol was overrun.

Coverage note: CNN has obtained additional footage from Fort McNair that wasn’t shown by the committee. 

The exclusive footage will air on CNN on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, during a special edition of “Anderson Cooper 360°.” The footage shows congressional leaders, after evacuating from the Capitol, gathering at Fort McNair working the phones, trying to figure out what was going on at the overrun Capitol, and begging for help as they frantically scrambled to quell the insurrection.

Watch the new footage of congressional leaders taking refuge on Jan. 6:

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The House Select Committee is reviewing a potential attempt to obstruct testimony surrounding claims that former President Donald Trump got in a heated exchange with his Secret Service detail on the day of the riot, a member of the panel says.

Aguilar said a former White House employee with national security responsibilities was informed of Trump’s “irate behavior” in the limo from then-White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato in Ornato’s office.

“It was Mr. Engel with Mr. Ornato in that office. They’d expressed to me that the President was irate, you know, on the drive up,” said the former White House employee, according to Aguilar. Secret Service lead agent Robert Engel “did not deny the fact that the President was irate,” added Aguilar.

Aguilar said the testimony “corresponds closely” with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s previous testimony.

Remember: This summer, Hutchinson testified that she heard from Ornato that Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol that “he reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel” and “then used his free hand to lunge toward” Engel. Hutchinson testified that Ornato told her the story in front of Engel and he did not dispute the account. 

After that hearing, a Secret Service official familiar with the matter told CNN that Ornato denied telling Hutchinson that the former President grabbed the steering wheel or an agent on his detail. Hutchinson stood by her testimony.

Rep. Pete Aguilar speaks as the hearing on Thursday.

A national security official who worked in the White House told the House select committee that former President Donald Trump’s angry outburst in the presidential SUV on Jan. 6, 2021 was so widely known that it became “water cooler talk,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat, said Thursday.

The account of the official, whose identity was not revealed by the Jan. 6 committee, further corroborates earlier testimony from former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson about Trump angrily reacting to being told by his Secret Service agents he could not go to the US Capitol after his speech on Jan. 6.

More on the incident: Hutchinson testified in a June hearing that Tony Ornato told her Trump became “irate” when informed by security that he would not be going to the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because the situation was not secure.

Ornato said that Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol that “he reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel” and “then used his free hand to lunge towards” Secret Service agent Robert Engel.

Hutchinson testified that Ornato told her the story in front of Engel and he did not dispute the account. 

Trump and his Republican allies have contested Hutchinson’s account as they’ve sought to undermine her testimony against Trump.

The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection sought to illustrate then-President Trump’s inaction as rioters stormed the Capitol Building, using new evidence to show the White House was aware of the violence as Trump returned to the building.

Trump has claimed he wasn’t aware of the riot until later in the day, telling New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman for her recent book that he was “on the late side” of learning about the events at the Capitol. 

But the committee showed an email sent to Secret Service, national security and Trump’s military advisers saying “hundreds of Trump supporters stormed through metal barricades at the back of the Capitol building about 1 pm Wednesday, running past security guards and breaking fences.”

The email was sent at 1:19 p.m. on Jan. 6.

One minute later, Trump returned to the White House and was told about the violence, according to committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin.

The committee played a series of clips from top aides to the President, suggesting Trump was watching television in the Oval Office dining room over the course of the afternoon, unwilling to intervene in the insurrection attempt.

A former White House employee with national security responsibilities told the committee that a White House adviser, Eric Hershmann, told White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that “the President didn’t want anything done.”

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 US Capitol attack will vote to subpoena former President Donald Trump during Thursday’s hearing, multiple sources tell CNN.

If he chooses not to appear, there will be a few things that could happen next, according to Elie Honig, a CNN analyst and former federal prosecutor.

Honig said that while it is “unlikely” that he will appear, he could “theoretically” testify.

If he does not, and refuses to comply with the subpoena, the select committee will have to decide if they will vote to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress. If they do, it will then go to the full House for a vote, Honig said.

Criminal contempt is one of the three options the congressional panel can pursue to enforce its subpoenas, along with civil and inherent contempt.

The Jan. 6 committee has done this before, including approving a criminal contempt report against Trump ally Steve Bannon after he refused to comply with a subpoena deadline.

CNN’s Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report

Days before the Jan. 6 attack at the US Capitol, former President Donald Trump’s communication adviser, Jason Miller, boasted to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that he “got the base FIRED UP,” and shared a link to a pro-Trump webpage containing hundreds of threatening comments about killing lawmakers if they went ahead with certifying Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral victory, according to a new text message presented by the House Select Committee on Thursday. 

“Patriots will be there, armed to the teeth. And if the filthy commie maggots try to push their fraud through, there will be hell to pay,” one post presented by the committee reads.  

“Our ‘lawmakers’ in Congress can leave one of two ways: 1. in a body bag 2. After rightfully certifying Trump the winner,” another post on the webpage shared by Miller said.

“Gallows don’t require electricity,” another post read.  

Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said Thursday that Miller claimed he had no idea about the hundreds of comments like these in the link he sent to Mark Meadows. The committee played a video from Miller’s deposition where he said he would have flagged something like that to the Secret Service.  

“But the Trump administration was aware of this type of violent rhetoric prior to January 6,” Schiff said. “The Secret Service was monitoring this kind of online activity … the same day Jason Miller sent his text message, agents received reports about a spike in activity on another platform called Parler,” he added. 

Watch the exchange:

Rep. Adam Schiff speaks during the hearing on Thursday.

Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said in Thursday’s hearing that the US Secret Service had received alerts of online threats made against then-Vice President Mike Pence ahead of the Capitol insurrection, including that Pence would be “‘a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.’”

He continued: “Another agent reported, ‘I saw several other alerts saying they will storm the Capitol if he doesn’t do the right thing.’”

On the day of the attack, Pence ultimately rejected pleas from Trump and his top allies to halt certification of Joe Biden’s victory by the House and Senate, hours after he was forced to take shelter at a secure location inside the US Capitol while a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building — with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” as they breached security barriers.

Former deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere told the committee in a video deposition that on the day of the attack, Trump talked at length about how “fired up” the crowd outside the White House waiting for his rally was.

Asked by investigators what he said about it, Deere replied: “Just that they were — they were fired up. They were angry. They feel like the election’s been stolen, that the election was rigged, that — he went on and on about that for a little bit.”