According to CNN legal analyst Elie Hoenig, the House select committee investigating the White House's involvement in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is being too lenient with members of Donald Trump's inner circle and now the time has come to act.
To date, the committee has issued a flurry of subpoenas in its quest for information about the attack, as well as attempts to steal the 2020 presidential election in Congress with forged election documents, and, while some recipients have acquiesced, many close to Trump have balked.
As the former prosecutor put it, it's time for the committee to "play hardball."
Pointing out that, "Time and again, it has made splashy announcements about its subpoenas or requests for testimony aimed at well-placed, high-profile subjects," the former prosecutor noted that only former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been indicted by the DOJ after the committee issued a criminal referral. But the committee has shown no signs of pressing their cases against the others.
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"Over the next few weeks, we'll see whether the committee intends to pursue these powerful individuals for their testimony, or whether they will quietly slink away and hope nobody notices," he wrote before stating that a good start would be focusing on three attorneys who have been, or still are, affiliated with Trump and who worked to steal the election with bogus claims.
"The committee has issued subpoenas to Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, Trump's former attorneys who spewed lies about election fraud and devised plans to interfere with the proper counting of electoral votes by Congress on January 6. These members of the self-titled legal 'Elite Strike Force,' who also routinely got thrashed in the courts, have responded to the committee's subpoenas with a combination of silence and defiance," he wrote while noting that only Powell has promised to appear.
He then added, "While the committee has held other witnesses who refused to testify in contempt -- Bannon now faces criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress, for which he's pleaded not guilty, and the DOJ continues to consider whether to charge former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows -- it has made no countermove yet toward Giuliani or the other lawyers."
In that vein, Hoenig also said the committee needs to step up its efforts to hear from Ivanka Trump who has been invited to appear but has yet to be issued a subpoena.
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"Ivanka Trump received an official request from the committee to testify as well. In a non-responsive statement, her spokesperson shrugged that the committee already knows she did not speak at the January 6 rally and implied she had nothing much to offer beyond her public statement that day anyway," he explained. "The former President whined that the committee will 'go after children;' Ivanka Trump is 40 years old and served as senior adviser to the President. The committee has done nothing in response to compel her testimony. It hasn't even upped the ante to a formal subpoena."
According to the attorney, time is of the essence and, with the threat that the Republicans could reclaim the House in November and disband the investigation, they are not moving quickly enough.
"Committee members have said they intend to hold public hearings in early 2022 and issue at least a draft report by around midyear. And if Republicans take control of the House after the upcoming midterms, the committee's work likely will come to an end. It would take some time for the committee to pursue these recalcitrant subjects in Congress and potentially in the courts -- and the clock is ticking." he warned. "If the committee fails to follow up its words with meaningful action, then it will show that, at least when it comes pursuing truth from powerful, well-connected people, it's more bark than bite."
You can read the entire piece here.
