The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol said Thursday it issued three subpoenas connected to a pro-Trump rally that preceded the deadly invasion.
The committee said it issued subpoenas for testimony and records from Ali Alexander and Nathan Martin, who were allegedly connected to the permit applications for a rally on the grounds outside the Capitol.
Shortly before the mob broke into the building, then-President Donald Trump, in a speech outside the White House, told a crowd of supporters to march to the Capitol. He also heaped pressure on Republicans to reject key states’ election results.
The committee also asked for records from Stop the Steal LLC, which was affiliated with the Capitol rally and which bears the same name as the slogan that was used to promote it.
“The rally on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy,” select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a press release.
“Over the course of that day, demonstrations escalated to violence and protestors became rioters. The Select Committee needs to understand all the details about the events that came before the attack, including who was involved in planning and funding them. We expect these witnesses to cooperate fully with our probe,” Thompson said.
News of the latest batch of subpoenas from the select committee came a week after the panel announced subpoenas for 11 people connected to Trump, including his former campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson and the niece of Trump’s ex-acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney.
Two weeks earlier, the committee revealed subpoenas for four Trump allies, all of whom worked in the Trump administration: former advisor Steve Bannon, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former communications aide Dan Scavino and ex-Defense Department official Kashyap Patel.
Panel member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said last month that the select committee would go “straight to subpoena” for witnesses who are seen to be hostile to the goals of the investigation.
Politico reported earlier Thursday that Trump himself is directing Bannon, Meadows, Scavino and Patel to defy the committee’s subpoenas.
Asked about that report, a spokeswoman for Trump shared a statement from the former president vowing that “executive privilege will be defended.”
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