Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack cast a wide net in its first expansive request on Wednesday, seeking records about former President Donald Trump, his children, his lawyers, and “any Member of Congress or congressional staff” communicating with the White House on the day of the U.S. Capitol siege.
“This is our first request for materials, and we anticipate additional requests as our investigation continues,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat chairing the committee, wrote in his letter to the National Archives and Records Administration. The line precedes 11 pages of detailed requests for materials.
Thompson set a Sept. 9 deadline for NARA to respond, with plenty to keep the agency busy in the interim.
The committee joined pending requests from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform from March, expressing “concern about the delay” in turning over those documents. The other committee wanted a wide array of White House communications on Jan. 6, including with Trump, his children, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, then-Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone and several other lawyers, aides and associates.
Those requests also included a search for all “documents and communications referring or relating to QAnon, the Proud Boys, Stop the Steal, Oath Keepers, or Three Percenters concerning the 2020 election results, or the counting of the electoral college vote” on Jan. 6.
While the Oversight Committee focused on the day of the siege, the Select Committee’s supplemental requests widen the aperture months earlier.
The Jan. 6 Committee wants discussions with lawyers associated with Trump’s election overturning efforts, including Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Cleta Mitchell, as far back as April 1, 2020. Powell’s so-called “Kraken” series of cases sought to overturn election results in Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan, efforts for which the city of Detroit is seeking her disbarment. Mitchell joined Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom the former president asked to “find” 11,780 votes need to flip the Peach State results in his favor.
The committee also wants communications involving Pentagon, CIA, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security officials, as well as Justice Department officials like Jeffrey Clark, recently reported to be behind election-subversion efforts in Georgia. Communications between Trump and Meadows on mail-in voting, fraud, or a “rigged” election are also being sought by the committee between April 2020 through the end of his presidency.
Empaneled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Democratic Party-dominated committee came into being after Senate Republicans voted down a bipartisan alternative. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who joined efforts to subvert the election results for Trump, tried to send others who tried to stop certification to the panel. Pelosi refused, allowing only Republicans who recognized President Joe Biden’s legitimate victory to serve on the panel.
Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the most vocal Congress members in denouncing Trump’s election-subterfuge efforts, are the only two representatives of their party on the panel.
In late July, the committee’s debut hearing featured testimony by four police officers assaulted by members of the pro-Trump mob during the riot. Follow-up hearings are expected after Labor Day.
Read the committee’s request below:
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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