WASHINGTON — A House committee investigates January. The June 6 attack on the Capitol is planned to vote to subpoena former President Donald Trump, sources familiar with the committee’s plans told NBC News on Thursday.
Members of the panel are expected to hold a final hearing before Thursday’s midterm elections, having previously said they were still considering seeking an interview with Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence.
The subpoenas will last more than a year since the committee began investigating the uprising, although multiple members of Congress have previously acknowledged that Trump is unlikely to comply.
Still, subpoenaing the former president has been under consideration for some time and has been an active topic of discussion among committee members. On the way to the hearing, Mississippi Democratic Chairman Benny Thompson told reporters that the panel has not ruled out subpoenaing Trump. He said at the start of the hearing that the committee would vote “on the basis of new evidence.”
The committee declined to comment on the expected vote.
Thompson began Thursday’s hearing by clarifying that this is technically a formal committee business meeting, so in addition to providing evidence, he said, “We may hold a committee vote on further investigative action based on that evidence. .”
If it voted today to subpoena Trump, that subpoena would expire at the end of the congressional term.
In its extensive investigation, the team has conducted more than 1,000 interviews and testimonies. It has also received hundreds of thousands of documents, and 100 subpoenas are known.
Thursday’s hearing will again put Trump at the center of plans to overturn the election, culminating in the Jan. 1 violence. Commission Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in opening remarks on June 6.
“None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and materially involved in all of this,” she said. “Today, we’ll be looking at President Trump’s mindset, his intentions, his motivations, and how he gets others to obey his orders. How can January 6th be possible if we don’t take the necessary action to stop it Happen again.”
Cheney also said the committee “may ultimately decide to submit a series of criminal cases to the Justice Department,” although she said lawmakers “recognize that our role is not to make decisions about prosecutions.”
Trump will not be the first former president to be subpoenaed by Congress. Several current and former presidents and vice presidents also testified before congressional committees, including Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Gerald R. Ford.
Meanwhile, it was unclear whether the committee was still seeking to interview Pence, who blocked Trump’s efforts on Jan. 1. 6 Overturned the 2020 presidential election and faced the threat of being hanged that day.
In August, Pence said at an event in New Hampshire that he would consider testifying before the House on Jan. 1. 6 Committee if invited to attend, but he suggested he needs to sort out some constitutional issues before submitting.
“If we receive any formal invitation, we will give it due consideration,” he said.
Thompson had previously suggested Thursday would be the committee’s last hearing, but several of its members recently suggested that might not be the case.
When asked if there would be additional hearings on MSNBC’s “Good Morning Joe,” the Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Florida Democrat, said the investigation “has a life of its own, and we’re constantly looking for new information.”
