Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena Trump

While Thursday's hearing will be the Jan. 6 committee's last one before the midterm elections, the panel’s work is not yet complete, and aides have cautioned against the hearing being the panel’s final word, noting that the investigation is still ongoing.

The committee just recently interviewed Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and the panel last month subpoenaed Wisconsin GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos for testimony, which Vos sued to stop.

The select committee’s investigation has also been working toward a final report, though it’s still not clear what shape that will take or when it might be released. Sources say the panel has also not yet made any decision on whether to make any criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.

But regardless of the status of the investigation, the committee has an external deadline less than three months away: The end of the 117th Congress on Jan. 3, 2023, when Republicans are favored to take control of the House in the midterms.

Should former President Donald Trump object to the committee's subpoena, it could lead to a lengthy court fight that outlives the committee.

One person whose testimony was noticeably absent from the House select committee's hearing on Thursday was Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Committee members interviewed Thomas last month but ultimately her testimony was not featured as part of the last hearing before the midterm election.

Despite saying for months that they wanted to hear from Thomas, members downplayed the significance of her testimony following her interview, and it was clear ahead of Thursday that she was not expected to be a central part of the hearing that was instead solely focused on former President Donald Trump.

But her absence was notable considering the panel did use testimony from several other high-profile witnesses who had been interviewed since the committee’s most recent hearing earlier this summer.

Some context: Members of the panel have long said they are interested in speaking with Thomas, particularly after CNN first reported text messages she exchanged with then-Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The texts show Thomas urging Meadows to continue the fight to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The committee also has email correspondence between Thomas and Trump’s election attorney John Eastman.

Asked if the Jan. 6 committee is prepared to go to court if former President Donald Trump fails to comply with the subpoena, the panel's chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said, “Let’s just see what happens.”

“He’s a former President, we hope that he honors it,” he added.

Thompson also said the subpoena of the former President would allow him to “clear the record” of his own culpability in the events that led to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

“What we presented today clearly shows the President’s culpability in what occurred on Jan. 6. So if he wants to clear the record, he will have an opportunity to do it,” Thompson said. 

When pressed by CNN’s Sara Murray on why Trump would comply with the subpoena when he’s already under criminal investigation and knows the work of the Jan. 6 committee will end, Thompson said, “Well, ask Donald Trump.”

Asked whether there are concerns about getting the work done before the new Congress, he said: “well we’ll do our work until we sunset."

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Jan. 6 committee, told CNN that the panel is not planning to subpoena former Vice President Mike Pence, after they voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon.

The Democrat from Mississippi answered "no" when asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether it was in the committee's plans.

Thompson also told CNN that the committee’s previous interest in hearing from Pence has waned, saying “we have collected enough evidence" that Pence "did his job."

"We now need to hear from the President," he added.

Former President Donald Trump is blasting the Jan. 6 committee’s unanimous vote to subpoena him for documents and testimony.

“Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?" he wrote on his Truth Social social media platform, using a derisive moniker for the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack.

"Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total 'BUST' that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly - A laughing stock all over the World?”

Trump has prevented many of his aides from sharing with the committee, urging them to invoke privilege.

More context: The vote took place at the end of today's Jan. 6 hearing, as the panel made its case that Trump lied about the outcome of the 2020 election and spurred on a violent mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol.

It’s rare but not without precedent for Congress to subpoena sitting and former presidents for testimony. The action is expected to trigger a prolonged court battle over Trump’s possible compliance, which could even outlast the committee itself.

Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said the need to hear from Trump "goes beyond our fact-finding," framing it as a question of "accountability to the American people."

Trump has previously derided the panel as an “Unselect Committee of Political Thugs and Hacks” and said its members are “evil, sinister and unpatriotic.”

CNN's Manu Raju, Jamie Gangel, Annie Grayer and Clare Foran contributed reporting to this post. 

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, told CNN the reason the panel felt it needed to subpoena former President Donald Trump is because it has been unable to nail down his specific actions and conversations.

Raskin added that witnesses closest to Trump, who could provided specifics, have pled the Fifth when interviewed by the committee.

Raskin pushed back on the notion that this subpoena would merely be a symbolic act that gets tied up in court.

“I want to believe that every American citizen who knows something about these events would come forward to testify and nobody knows more about them than Donald Trump," he said.

But when pressed again on how the committee will handle Trump’s efforts to likely block this subpoena, Raskin said, “we haven't discussed that because you're several hypothetical steps down the road from us. But I'll say this, we certainly have litigated in the past, and I think we've got a pretty unbroken track record of winning our cases precisely because all we're asking people to do is to come forward and testify. And the Supreme Court has been perfectly clear that Congress has the power to do that.”

CNN has obtained previously unseen footage from Jan. 6, showing congressional leaders while they took refuge at Fort McNair, two miles from the US Capitol.

The exclusive footage will air on CNN on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, during a special edition of “Anderson Cooper 360°.” The footage shows congressional leaders, after evacuating from the Capitol, gathering at Fort McNair working the phones, trying to figure out what was going on at the overrun Capitol, and begging for help as they frantically scrambled to quell the insurrection.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack aired snippets of this material at its hearing Thursday. CNN has obtained additional clips that weren’t shown by the committee.

CNN's Anderson Cooper said he saw the entirety of the more than 40-minute long footage that was provided to the committee.

The House Jan. 6 committee voted Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump for documents and testimony at the conclusion of the panel’s final hearing before the midterm elections.

The unanimous vote marks an escalation in the committee’s efforts to obtain testimony from the former President, though at this late stage, it’s unlikely that Trump would comply with the subpoena – and the committee likely doesn’t have time for a lengthy court fight. 

It’s rare but not without precedent for Congress to subpoena sitting and former presidents for testimony.

House Select Committee Char Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney argued the committee needed to hear from Trump to tell the most complete story it can about the Jan. 6 riot.

Cheney said more than 30 witnesses have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, including some who communicated with Trump. She noted that others, like Steve Bannon, have been held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify – and Bannon was convicted after the Justice Department indicted him – but argued the committee couldn’t wait for the Justice Department to obtain information from those recalcitrant witnesses. 

“At some point, the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing,” Cheney said. “But our duty today is to our country and our children and our Constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to the answers, so we can act now to protect our republic,” she said.

Jan. 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said the panel's decision to vote to subpoena former President Donald Trump is important for the American people.

Thompson said the committee has a "obligation" to see Trump's testimony, though it recognizes that the subpoena of a former President is a "serious and extraordinary action."

"That's why we want to take this step in full view of the American people," he added.

"There's precedent in American history to congress to compel the testimony of a President. There is also precedent for presidents to provide testimony and documentary evidence to congressional investigators," Thompson said.