Jan. 6 select committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) on Sunday didn’t rule out the possibility of the panel subpoenaing former President Trump days after the House moved to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress as a result of his subpoena defiance.
Asked during an interview on CBS whether the panel issued looking to issue a subpoena to the former president, Thompson replied that “nobody’s off limits.”
“We will be on an ongoing basis issuing subpoenas to various individuals around the country,” Thompson said. “If we have enough evidence, and obviously we are pursuing evidence, but if the evidence leads to former President Trump or anyone else, the committee is not resonant in pushing back on it. We will go forward with it.”
Thompson stressed that it’s an ongoing investigation and that the panel is “not trying to get ahead” of it.
“We’ll follow the facts and circumstances as they present themselves,” Thompson said.
Despite Thompson signaling that Trump isn’t in the clear of the panel’s subpoenas, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who serves on the Jan. 6 select committee, has expressed that he is unsure about subpoenaing Trump. During an interview on CNN earlier this month, Kinzinger argued that it would “become kind of a circus” and therefore the panel wouldn’t want to do so upfront, but that if the former president has pieces of information that it needs, then they “certainly will” issue a subpoena for him.
Late last month, the committee subpoenaed four former Trump administration officials: Bannon, Meadows, Patel and former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino. The panel also subpoenaed Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump administration Justice Department official who attempted to use DOJ resources to bolster Trump’s election fraud falsehoods, earlier this month.
After Bannon’s lawyer told the committee that his client will defy its subpoena after Trump asked former aides and advisers to invoke executive immunity in order to avoid handing over documents or giving testimony, the committee announced contempt proceedings against Bannon.
Last week, the House voted 229-202 to hold Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress. Bannon will be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for potential prosecution over his refusal to comply with the subpoena issued by the Jan. 6 Committee.
Watch Thompson’s remarks below:
