January 6 Committee Subpoenas Trump's Closest Allies

Sweeping Subpoenas

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol issued waves of subpoenas throughout late 2021 and into 2022, targeting dozens of people in Trump’s orbit. The first round, issued in September 2021, targeted four of Trump’s closest advisors: former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kash Patel, and former advisor Steve Bannon. The committee sought testimony and documents about their knowledge of Trump’s plans and actions on and before January 6.

Defiance and Contempt

Several of Trump’s allies refused to cooperate, citing Trump’s claims of executive privilege, a legal argument that many scholars said did not apply to a former president. Steve Bannon, who had left the White House years before January 6 and had no plausible executive privilege claim, flatly refused to comply. The House voted to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress, and the Justice Department subsequently indicted him on two counts of criminal contempt. He was later convicted and sentenced to four months in prison.

Mark Meadows and the Text Messages

Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows initially cooperated with the committee, turning over thousands of text messages before abruptly ceasing cooperation. The messages he had already provided proved to be among the most revealing evidence the committee obtained, showing frantic communications from Fox News hosts, Republican lawmakers, and Trump family members on January 6 urging Meadows to get Trump to call off the mob. The texts showed that Trump’s inner circle understood the severity of the attack in real time.

The Legal Battles

Trump himself sought to block the committee’s work by filing lawsuits claiming executive privilege over White House records held by the National Archives. In January 2022, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s attempt to block the release of those records in an 8-1 decision, with only Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting. The ruling cleared the way for the committee to access hundreds of pages of White House documents, call logs, and handwritten notes from the days surrounding January 6.