On Wednesday, the House committee that is looking into the attack on the Capitol on January 6 withdrew the subpoena that it had issued to former President Donald J. Trump. The committee admitted that the lawmakers had run out of time to obtain his documents or testimony, so they withdrew the subpoena.
On January 3, the committee will no longer exist since it has been dissolved. After waiting until October to serve Mr. Trump with a subpoena, the president immediately filed a lawsuit against the panel in an effort to stop it from proceeding.
The panel had given Mr. Trump the order to produce a comprehensive list of documents and communications related to nearly every aspect of his effort to invalidate the 2020 election between November 3, 2020 and January 6, 2021. This list was to include phone calls, texts, encrypted messages, and emails. The deadline for this list was set for January 6, 2021. But Mr. Trump’s legal strategy made it very improbable that he would ever testify, taking into account the fact that the committee is about to wrap up its work.
This was made official on Wednesday by the chairman of the committee, a Democrat from Mississippi named Bennie Thompson, who wrote to Mr. Trump’s legal team and informed them that he was retracting the subpoena that the panel had issued.
In his letter, Mr. Thompson said, “As you may be aware, the select committee has completed its hearings, has circulated its final report, and will very soon reach its conclusion.” The select committee will no longer be able to pursue the specific material that was subpoenaed since “the completion of our probe is approaching close.”
One of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, Harmeet K. Dhillon, expressed his joy at the new development on his Twitter account.
In an email, she said that the House Select Committee had “waved the white flag and withdrawn demand” after her business had sued to stop the subpoena of President Trump over his acts as president on January 6. After my company filed a lawsuit on January 6 challenging the legitimacy of the House Select Committee’s subpoena to President Trump to testify about his actions as president, the committee withdrew its request.
A spokesperson for the committee refused to comment on the matter.
As the work of the panel comes to a close, Mr. Thompson is distributing letters very identical to these to the remaining witnesses.
A letter that was almost similar to the one that was given to Doug Mastriano, the Republican contender for governor of Pennsylvania, who the panel wanted to question was addressed to him. Mr. Mastriano was a key player in Mr. Trump’s attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 election in the state of Pennsylvania.
