WASHINGTON: A committee investigating the January 6 US Capitol uprising issued subpoenas on Monday to five more individuals, including former President Donald Trump aide Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as lawmakers held their rallies before the deadly attack. Deepened the investigation.
The summons calls for Stone and Jones’ documents and testimony, as well as accusing the three men of organizing and abetting two rallies that took place on January 6.
The select committee is seeking information about the rallies and subsequent march to the Capitol that turned into a violent mob attacking the Capitol and posing a threat to our democracy,” said Representative Benny Thompson, the Democratic chair of the panel, Mississippi Representative Benny Thompson. Created, paid for, and received funding related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with White House and congressional officials.
The summons issued on Monday are the latest in a wide net that a House panel has cast in an effort to investigate the fatal day, when a group of Trump supporters, motivated by their false claims of a stolen election, brutally attacked police. attacked and broke his way. Capitol to obstruct certification of Democrat Joe Bidens’ victory.
The committee has already interviewed more than 150 people in government, social media and law enforcement, including some former Trump aides who have been allies. The panel has summoned more than 20 witnesses, and most of them, including several aides who helped plan the huge Stop the Steel rally on the morning of January 6, indicated they would cooperate.
Stone indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller in Russia’s investigation of lying to Congress about his efforts to gather information about Russia-hacked Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks for the 2016 presidential election Was. Trump later forgave him.
The House subpoena states that Stone spoke at rallies the day before the Capitol uprising and used members of a far-right group, the Oath Keepers, as personal security guards while he was in Washington. .
In a statement, Stone said he had yet to see the details of the summons, but that any allegations of his involvement that day were clearly false.
I have repeatedly stated that I had no advance knowledge of the events at the Capitol that day, the conservative provocateur said. After the summons is served and the requests are reviewed by my attorney, I will decide how I will proceed.
The House panel also wants to hear from Jones, said Thompson, the conspiracy theorist and talk-show host who helped organize a January 6 rally in the Ellipse before the rebellion. Thompson’s letter said Jones repeatedly promoted Trump’s claims of election fraud, urging his listeners to come to Washington for the rally and march from the Ellipse to the Capitol.
An attorney who previously represented Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The other three summons were issued to Dustin Stockton, Jennifer Lawrence and Taylor Budovich for their alleged involvement in campaigning and organizing a series of rallies following the 2020 presidential election, promoting misinformation about election results, Including the Ellipse rally. Violent attack on the Capitol.
Stockton and Lawrence were prominent leaders of the Stop the Steel movement after the election and helped organize the January 6 rally before the attack on the Capitol. The couple said they planned to testify and would return the documents requested by the committee.
Both have denied violence. Stockton said he had previously volunteered to reach out to the committee to cooperate.
We were shocked and horrified by what happened on the 6th, Lawrence told the Associated Press on Monday. We need to get to the bottom of what really happened so that we can move forward as a country.
Budovich, who now serves as Trump’s chief spokesman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The election results were confirmed by state officials and upheld by the courts. Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, assisted the Justice Department that found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have reversed the results.
The committee is seeking information from Stockton and his fiancée, Lawrence, whom they say were involved in organizing some of the rallies. The committee alleges that Stockton was so concerned that the Ellipse rally would pose a potential threat that he escalated those concerns to the then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
The panel has already sought documents and testimony from several other Trump advisers, some of whom have cooperated and some have not. Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of Trump, was indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress on November 12 after he defied a House committee subpoena. The committee is giving Meadows more time to comply with a subpoena before proceeding with the panel’s contempt vote.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Noman Merchant in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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