- The select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot subpoenaed four Trump-aligned lawyers.
- The panel wants documents and testimony from Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Boris Epshteyn.
- Chairman Bennie Thompson said the lawyers pushed nonsense election fraud claims.
The select House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol riot on Tuesday subpoenaed four lawyers who were closely involved with then President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The committee subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Boris Epshteyn.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the bipartisan panel, said in a statement that the four lawyers “advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes.”
The committee’s announcement of the subpoenas also laid out why lawmakers are interested in talking to the four lawyers.
Giuliani “actively promoted claims of election fraud” on Trump’s behalf “and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results,” the statement said. The former New York mayor was also in direct contact with Trump at the time and spoke to lawmakers “regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the results of the 2020 election.”
Ellis, meanwhile, wrote two memos outlining far-fetched legal theories for how then Vice President Mike Pence could reject certain Electoral College votes and throw the election to Trump.
Powell spearheaded a number of failed lawsuits that sought to overturn or nullify the election results in battleground states that Joe Biden won. She also “actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of former President Trump” in both the lawsuits she filed and in her media appearances, the select committee said in its statement.
And Epshteyn is said to have attended a number of meetings at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, which were led by Giuliani and focused on installing Trump in the White House for a second term despite the fact that he lost the election to Biden.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
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