WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has made it clear he will likely challenge a House committee summons investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, escalating a clash with the panel over his and his testimony. other Republican lawmakers.
In an 11-page letter to the panel on Friday, a McCarthy attorney argued that the select committee does not have the authority to issue subpoenas to lawmakers under House rules and demanded answers to a series of questions and documents if the your client should comply. .
Attorney Elliot Berke requested a list of “issues that the select committee would like to discuss with the leader and the constitutional and legal justification that justifies the request.”
“I expressly reserve the right of Leader McCarthy to assert any other privilege or objection applicable to the appointment of the select committee,” Berke wrote.
Committee spokesman Tim Mulvey responded on Friday evening: “Leader McCarthy and other members who have been summoned are hiding behind rejected arguments and unfounded requests for special treatment.”
He added: “The refusal of these members to cooperate is a continuing assault on the rule of law and sets a new dangerous precedent that could hamper the House’s ability to oversee in the future.” Mulvey said committee chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., “Will formally respond to these members in the coming days.”
The House panel believes that the testimony of Republican lawmakers is crucial to their investigation, as each of the men was in contact with then-President Donald Trump and his allies during the weeks and days leading up to the insurgency. of the Chapters. Some attended meetings and urged the White House to try to overturn the 2020 presidential results.
McCarthy has admitted to talking to Trump on Jan. 6 when Trump supporters were beating police outside the Capitol and forcing him into the building. But he did not share many details. The committee asked for information about his talks with Trump “before, during and after” the riots.
His apparent challenge presents a new challenge for the committee after lawmakers decided to take the extraordinary, politically risky step of quoting their own colleagues.
“For Republican House leaders to agree to participate in this political ploy would change the House forever,” the California lawmaker wrote Thursday in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal with Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
The committee must now decide whether to enforce the summons but intends to close the investigation and prepare for a series of public hearings in early June. He could refer lawmakers to the House Ethics Committee or take steps to consider them a contempt.
The summonses were issued to McCarthy, Jordan and representatives Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama in mid-May. The panel has already interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 100,000 documents while investigating the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries.
“I have no relevant information that could advance any legitimate legislative purpose,” Jordan said in a letter detailing his reasons for not cooperating. The others indicated after the issuance of the summonses that they would not cooperate either.
Perry’s lawyer sent a letter to the committee earlier this week saying he “could not conscientiously comply” with the subpoena because he did not believe it was valid under House rules.
Biggs and Brooks’ requests for feedback were not returned immediately.
The panel had previously called for the voluntary cooperation of the five lawmakers, along with a handful of other GOP members, but all refused to speak to the panel, which debated for months whether to issue the summonses.
McCarthy and the others were summoned to testify before investigators this week and next week. McCarthy, who aspires to be Speaker of the House if Republicans take a majority next year, said the committee’s decision will have a lasting impact.
“All the representatives of the minority would be subjected to forced interrogations by the majority, under oath, without any basis of fairness and at the expense of the taxpayers,” he wrote in the opinion.
In another move, McCarthy and House No. 2 Republican Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise filed a writ in support of Donald Trump’s ally, Steve Bannon, facing charges of criminal contempt. to challenge a committee citation. In writing, the two’s lawyers write that the committee does not have the authority to issue subpoenas, an argument that has been dismissed in other court proceedings.
Lawyers also wrote that McCarthy and Scalise filed the writ “out of concern for possible harm to the rules and institutional order of the House.”