Republicans' decision to ignore Jan 6th subpoenas will come back to haunt them: legal expert

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance called the move by the House committee investigating the Jan 6th insurrection to subpoena six key Republican House members a "win-win" whether they appear or not.

On Thursday, in a major move, the committee issued subpoenas for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), along with three of their colleagues seeking their testimony on the events surrounding the insurrection following the 2020 presidential election, and, reportedly, none of them are expected to appear.

Speaking with host Phang on Saturday morning, Vance stated their refusal to appear would hand investigators a powerful weapon for the June hearings that they wouldn't have if they simply showed up and testified.

According to Phang, there are calls to have marshals round up the lawmakers and bring them to the hearing, asking Vance, "Is this too much of an extreme position to take to obtain compliance in this case?"

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"This is one of the old powers that has not been used for 100 years and it would not work well with private citizens" she replied that "... it has more vitality when it has members of Congress."

"Here is why, in some ways, the subpoena situation is a win-win for Democrats, whether they testify or not," she continued. "They already have volumes of testimony from staff and others, they have tapes, they really know what was going on in large part. If these essential members of Congress refused to comply with the subpoenas, in the hearings, the committee will have the opportunity to tell the American public the story of what happened and to make the point that these witnesses refused to testify."

"Katie, you know like I do, from trying criminal cases, in this setting, prosecutors are forbidden to mention that they refused to make a statement or to comment on a defendant's failure to testify; the inference is so incriminating," she elaborated. "If you have a legitimate story to tell, they would tell it. In the congressional hearings there is no restriction on what the interlocutors can tell the public. They can comment on the fact that these five did not comply with the subpoenas as well as others. They can tell the people that they can draw negative inferences from that, and essentially it will come down to how powerfully the committee can use this failure by these members to convince the American people about the truth of their version of what happened on January 6th."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

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