The Jan. 6 Committee issued a subpoena for the phone records of Sebastian Gorka, the bombastic Trump supporter revealed in a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
Gorka said that the panel has not yet asked him directly for any information, but that he received notice from Verizon of a Dec. 15, 2021 subpoena from the committee.
Gorka, who made the leap to the Trump White House in its early days from a position as Breitbart’s national security editor, told that outlet last month that he would launch a “political battle” against the panel over the request.
He’s the latest in a string of Jan. 6 investigation targets who suddenly lawyered up over the past month, fighting subpoenas for their phone records. In many cases, those filing the lawsuits had partly complied with earlier subpoenas for testimony and documents.
Gorka claimed in his lawsuit that his only Jan. 6 involvement was an invitation to appear at a Supreme Court event. TPM first reported last week that Jan. 6 rally planners scheduled an afternoon demonstration outside the Supreme Court before calling it off as the insurrection unfolded.
“Although invited to speak at an event at the Supreme Court that day, his speech was cancelled, and therefore, he only observed the speeches at the Ellipse as one spectator among many and left,” Gorka wrote in the lawsuit.
It’s not clear whether Gorka is referencing that Supreme Court event, though no other events at the high court that day have been reported. Ali Alexander, one of the activists involved in planning events on Jan. 6, had also filed for a permit to hold a small rally on Capitol grounds across the street from the Court.
Gorka argued, with his typical overwrought flourish, that the panel’s request constituted “aimless rifling through the communications records of an adverse political journalist.”
“The toxic forces rending this country apart will only be strengthened, and the goal of more tranquil times will be more elusive, if any party holding a majority of seats in the House of Representatives can hunt down and persecute citizens, including journalists, because of their political sympathies and speech in an effort to silence that speech,” he wrote.
Those suing the committee over the phone subpoenas encompass a broad range of people, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Michael Flynn, John Eastman and Alexander. Lower-level organizers of the Jan. 6 rally, including several people listed on permits for events that day, have also filed suit against the phone records subpoenas.
Many of those filing had earlier pledged to cooperate with the panel’s investigation, but now rehash outlandish arguments long-used by former President Trump that Congress has virtually no authority to conduct investigations.
