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Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other senior officials subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack are expected to defy orders for documents and testimony related to the January 6, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The decision to defy subpoenas would mark the first major obstacle to the investigation the select committee faces and threatens to spark a long legal battle as the former president pushes some of his top aides to undermine the investigation.
The four Trump aides targeted by the select committee – Meadows, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, strategist Steve Bannon and Defense Department aide Kash Patel – should resist orders as Trump prepares to ask them to do so. do, the source said.
The select committee had issued the subpoenas under threat of criminal prosecution for non-compliance, warning that the penalty for defying a congressional subpoena would be much more severe under the Biden administration than under the Trump presidency.
But increasingly concerned about the far-reaching nature of the Jan. 6 investigation, Trump and his legal team, led by former White House deputy attorney Patrick Philbin, are preparing to ask attorneys for the assistants cited. to appear to defy orders.
The basis for Trump’s pressing aides not to cooperate is based on executive privilege, the source said, saying the sensitive conversations about what he knew before plans to stop certification of electoral victory of Joe Biden should remain secret.
Philbin appears less convinced than Trump of the strength of the legal argument, the sources said, in part because the Justice Department previously refused to assert protection for the Jan. 6 testimony, suggesting that it did not exist. not to protect Trump’s personal interests.
Rather, sources say the former president’s lawyer appears to view the strategy as an effective way to slow down the select committee, which aims to produce a final report ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, in order to keep the investigation going. non-partisan.
As of Tuesday, it was unclear whether Trump would push his aides to defy all elements of the subpoenas, the source warned – access to certain emails or call tapes requested by the select committee could be removed.
But Trump’s strategy mirrors the manual he used to prevent House Democrats from impeaching his top advisers during his presidency. Former White House lawyer Don McGahn, for example, only testified before Congress about the Mueller inquiry after Trump left office.
House select committee investigators had demanded that all four Trump aides hand over emails, call tapes and other documents related to the Capitol attack by Thursday, then appear before the panel for in camera depositions next week.
But with the former president expected to press Philbin for Meadows, Scavino, Bannon and Patel to mount general refusals against the subpoenas, the sources said, the select committee currently appears likely to see none of the requests met.
The ruling means House Special Committee investigators now face the key decision on how to enforce the orders – and whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department after Thursday’s deadline for documents. or the critical date next week for testimonials.
Special House Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson recently told reporters he was ready to continue criminal referrals to witnesses who defied subpoenas and subpoena deadlines, as the panel picks up the pace of his evidence-gathering part of his investigation.
“We will do whatever the law allows us to do,” Thompson said last Friday of the prosecution of reluctant witnesses. “For those who do not agree to come voluntarily, we will make criminal references.”
A spokesperson for the select committee declined to comment on how the panel intended to ensure compliance.
The legal battle to force some of Trump’s top White House aides to comply with subpoenas – regardless of their manifestation – is likely to lead to constitutional clashes in the courts that would test the power of congressional oversight authority over executive power.
But members of the select committee have expressed quiet optimism in recent days at least about the potential prosecution of witnesses who might challenge subpoenas, in part because of the Biden administration’s public support for the investigation.
The select committee said in letters of summons to Meadows, Bannon, Scavino and Patel that they were key people of interest in what they knew of the extent of Trump’s involvement in the attack on the Capitol, which left five dead and more than 140 injured.
Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, remains of particular interest to House select committee investigators as he was involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and remained by his side Trump as rioters stormed Capitol Hill on his behalf.
He was also in contact with Patel at the Department of Defense, the select committee said, and contacted members of the Women for America First group which had planned the “Stop the Steal” rally which deteriorated into the insurgency. January 6.
Scavino, the former White House deputy chief of staff, became a person of interest after it emerged he had met with Trump the day before the Capitol attack to discuss how to persuade members of Congress not to certify the election, according to its summons letter.
The select committee said in the summons letter to Bannon that it wanted to hear from Trump’s former chief strategist, who was in attendance at the Willard Hotel on January 5 to strategize with Trump campaign officials on how to stop voter certification.
Patel, meanwhile, is under surveillance because he was involved in Pentagon talks about security on Capitol Hill before and after the riot. The select committee added that they were also reviewing reports that Trump had attempted to install him as deputy director of the CIA.
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