House Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump associates

A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is demanding records and testimony from four close associates of former President Donald Trump who were in contact with him before and during the attack.

In a significant escalation for the panel, Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., announced the subpoenas of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The four men are among Trump's most loyal aides.

The panel, formed over the summer, is now launching the interview phase of its investigation after sorting through thousands of pages of documents it had requested in August from federal agencies and social media companies.

Mary Clare Jalonick, a Capitol Hill Reporter for the Associated Press said the committee's goal is to provide a complete accounting of what went wrong when the Trump loyalists brutally beat police, broke through windows and doors and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden's victory — and to prevent anything like it from ever happening again.

"Democrats say this is extremely serious and it can't be downplayed or forgotten, and that's why they're pursuing this investigation," Jalonick says. "They also say there's a lot of questions that remain unanswered, including what Trump was doing at the time."

The subpoenas are certain to anger Republicans, most of whom have been content to move on from the insurrection and have remained loyal to Trump even after denouncing the attack. Only two Republicans sit on the panel, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

"There was an attempt to create an independent commission which failed. So at this point, there's a partisan committee, which is this committee. It's led by Democrats," Jalonick added.

It is unclear how the witnesses will respond, or whether they will try and resist the demands as many of them did under the Trump administration. Complicating matters is that Trump is no longer in office and cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of Congress's hands. As the current president, Biden will have some say in turning over materials.

"Biden has certainly made it clear he wants to provide information to the committee and Trump is likely to use the courts to try and fight it," Jalonick said.

The committee set a deadline of Oct. 7 for documents and scheduled interviews for Oct. 14 and 15.