The House committee investigating the events culminating in the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol is planning to subpoena more witnesses in the days ahead, including John Eastman, the conservative legal scholar who outlined a six-step plan to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The Washington Post reports:
“It will happen,” Chair Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said in an interview Tuesday of a subpoena for Eastman, who played a key role in the legal operation that was run out of a “command center” at the Willard Hotel in Washington in the days and hours leading up to Jan. 6. Thompson did not provide a timeline for when the subpoena will be issued.
Eastman can avoid being subpoenaed if he voluntarily cooperates with the committee, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Post.
Following his overwhelming defeat in the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump relied on Eastman to provide the legal basis for the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement. In a now infamous memo, Eastman argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence could ignore the electoral votes from states where unfounded allegations of fraud emerged. Eastman’s plan was a bit convoluted, but ultimately he thought the presidency would be decided by the House of Representative, with each state delegation getting one vote. Since Republicans controlled the delegations in 26 states, they would move to re-elect Trump.
“You really need to listen to John. He’s a respected constitutional scholar. Hear him out,” Trump said to Pence, according to the book “Peril.” Pence ultimately resisted.
Eastman has since distanced himself from the memo, telling The National Review he was merely gaming out hypotheticals and he didn’t believe the plan was “viable.”
But on January 6th, Eastman spoke at the rally that proceeded the attack on the U.S. Capitol, telling the crowd, “all we are demanding of Vice President Pence is this afternoon at one o’clock he let the legislatures of the states look into this so that we get to the bottom of it and the American people know whether we have control of the direction of our government or not! We no longer live in a self-governing republic if we can’t get the answer to this question!”
Meanwhile, the House committee tasked with probing January 6th has reportedly backed off a request for about 50 pages of Trump White House documents, according to POLITICO.
The outlet explains:
Lawmakers and aides say they want to avoid a complicated and possibly protracted negotiation over documents related to the Capitol attack that might be legitimately shielded by executive privilege, attorney-client privilege or other reasons. House investigators intend to seek the documents later but opted to “defer” the request after talks with President Joe Biden’s White House.
“The Select Committee has not withdrawn its request for those records and will continue to engage with the executive branch to ensure we get access to all the information relevant to our probe,” said a spokesman for the committee.
