US panel demands ‘historic’ Trump testimony in Capitol attack probe
Ex-president Donald Trump is ordered to testify under oath and provide documents to the team investigating January 2021 attack on Capitol by his supporters.
Lawmakers probing the 2021 attack on the US Capitol have subpoenaed former president Donald Trump to testify on his involvement in the violence, in a major escalation of their sprawling inquiry.
“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee told Trump in a letter on Friday.
The letter accuses Trump of bidding to overturn the election despite knowing claims of fraud had been overwhelmingly rejected by more than 60 courts and refuted by his campaign staff and senior advisors.
“In short, you were at the centre of the first and only effort by any US president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself,” it added.
“We recognise that a subpoena to a former president is a significant and historic action,” Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote in the letter to Trump. “We do not take this action lightly.”
The summons came after the House panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans voted unanimously last week to compel Trump’s appearance before investigators.
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