Impeachment lawyer says Trump’s Jan. 6 enablers won’t be able to refuse subpoenas
Steve Bannon leaving the federal courthouse in Manhattan (screengrab)
October 07, 2021
The House Jan. 6 committee is expected to recommend to the Justice Department that they take action against those subpoenaed by the investigatory committee, NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur reported Thursday. While the committee hasn't announced it yet, impeachment lawyer Norm Eisen agrees it's only a matter of time.
Writing for CNN.com, Eisen and the Democracy Center's Hank Sparks explained that top allies of President Donald Trump won't be able to hide from subpoenas now that they can't rely on the White House to protect them. The committee intends to send out many more subpoenas but began with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel, and former Trump advisor Stephen Bannon, according to the committee. They have until Oct. 15 to respond to the requests.
Several books that have been released in the past months since the attack have revealed accounts of what was going on in real-time among Trump staffers. It was also revealed Thursday that Meadows was part of an effort to get the Justice Department to attack the election results.
Scavino, who is apparently hiding from process servers, was behind Trump's social media. The former president was known for dictating tweets to Scavino, who was constantly around Trump for that reason.
Patel was picked by Trump to keep an eye on those at the Pentagon, ensuring that he was in constant communication with the president.
Bannon was among those predicting what would happen on Jan. 6 with startling accuracy. He told Trump to "kill this administration in the crib" before Jan. 6, according to the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
Another 11 subpoenas targeted those behind the funding and coordination of the Jan. 6 event.
"Those subpoenaed includes the former Trump campaign aide Katrina Pierson, who, the subpoena says (based on news reports), helped organize the rally and met with Trump in the Oval Office just two days before the insurrection," the column explained. "The subpoena targets also include Caroline Wren, who received tens of thousands of dollars as a consultant for the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee's joint fundraising committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets site. Her title at the rally? 'VIP adviser.'"
Organizer Megan Powers was also all over the rally paperwork as the "Operations Manager for Schedule and Guidance," the select committee subpoena said. She was given $300,000 to pay for her work coordinating things, Trump's campaign finance reports say.
The column explained that there aren't any places to hide for these Trump allies anymore. President Joe Biden has said that he won't allow executive privilege to cover anything involving Jan. 6. But even if Biden wanted to, he couldn't, according to past Supreme Court rulings in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, which ruled that "the privilege is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic."
Attorney General Merrick Garland has also made it clear that the Justice Department intends to use every resource available to bring anyone involved to justice.
The bipartisan select committee also said that they are willing to use whatever options they have to ensure people answer their questions on the record.
"All of the foregoing matters not just for Trump's congressional reckoning, but also for his criminal one. Serious federal criminal violations are potentially implicated here for Trump," the column explained. "While there is no sign the Department of Justice is actually looking at him so far, depending on what the select committee unearths, the committee can make referrals to the Department of Justice to take action."
Thus, they believe that Trump and his allies have nowhere else to hide.
Read the full column at CNN.com.
Also today, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry was revealed to be at the heart of the Senate investigation on former President Donald Trump's efforts to use the Justice Department to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. WATCH:
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