Trump sues Jan. 6 committee to block subpoena to testify
Washington, Nov 11 (EFE).- Former United States president Donald Trump on Friday sued the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol assault to block a subpoena compelling him to testify and submit documents.
Trump filed the complaint in a court in Florida, where he resides, and in a statement his lawyer, David Warrington, said that “long-held precedent and practice maintain that separation of powers prohibits Congress from compelling a president to testify before it.”
On Oct. 21, the committee formally summoned Trump to testify under oath and deliver documents related to his actions in the days before, during and after the riot. Last Friday the committee extended the deadline for documents by one week, and asked Trump to appear for a deposition on Nov. 14.
In the letter that its president, Democrat Bennie Thompson, and its vice president, Republican Liz Cheney, sent to Trump, they highlighted “overwhelming evidence” that he “personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power.”
In addition, they said he was “at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. 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.”
Specifically, the committee accused Trump of disseminating false information of electoral fraud to annul the result of the vote, won by Joe Biden.
It also accuses the former president of seeking to “corrupt” the Department of Justice, in addition to pressuring local officials and legislators to alter the results, summoning tens of thousands of his supporters to Washington and the Capitol, inciting violence in messages on social media, and refusing to disperse his rioting supporters while he watched the attack on TV.
On Jan. 6, 2021, some 10,000 people, most of them Trump supporters, demonstrated in front of the Capitol and about 800 stormed the building as Biden’s electoral victory was being ratified. It resulted in five deaths and some 140 officers injured. EFE
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