Former President Donald Trump’s efforts to subpoena information related to a House investigation into the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riots were blocked Monday by a federal judge, who ruled that the request appeared to be nothing more than a “fishing expedition”.
Trump and his legal team have sought to call Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House select committee on Jan. 6, and other government officials over alleged “missing material” from the panel’s archives.
“The broad scope of records sought by Defendants, and their vague descriptions of their potential relevance, resemble less a ‘good faith effort to obtain identifiable evidence’ than a general ‘fishing expedition’ attempting to use [Rule 17(c) subpoena] as a discovery tool,” wrote Judge Tanya Chutkan in her order denying the subpoena request.
In August, Thompson stated that the committee did not keep records of material that was not used during panel hearings or featured in its publications, prompting Trump’s lawyers to question whether it had been “lost, destroyed or altered.”
Chutkan argued that Trump’s request amounted to a “fishing expedition.” AP
“The Select Committee does not archive interim committee records that are not raised by Committee action, such as use in hearings or official publication, or that do not further its investigative activities,” Thompson wrote.
“Therefore, and contrary to the implication of your letter, the Select Committee is not required to archive all videotaped interviews or transcribed depositions,” Thompson wrote in August in response to allegations from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) that some records have been lost.
Loudermilk, chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee for the House Administration Committee, led an investigation into the committee’s work Jan. 6.
Rep. Bennie Thompson is among those whom Trump is trying to subpoena. AP The Jan 6 Assembly Select Committee was disbanded shortly after it issued its final report last December. AP
Trump had sought to subpoena the Georgia Republican as well, along with the archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber and Department of Homeland Security General Counsel Johnathan Meyer as part of his denied request.
The select committee’s final report, released last December, accused the former president of engaging in a criminal “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election results.
“The main cause of January 6 was one man, former President Donald Trump, who was followed by many others,” the report said. “None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him.”
Trump argued that documents from the January 6 House committee “disappeared.” Getty Images
The panel, in another important finding, found that Trump and his allies engaged in approximately 200 actions targeting state legislators or state and local election officials in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The 2024 Republican presidential front-runner was indicted on a four-count indictment in August alleging that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case, whose trial is expected to begin on March 4, 2024, in Washington, DC.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
