WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has indicated that he is likely to oppose a summons by a House of Representatives committee investigating the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, escalating opposition to the panel over his testimony. deputies from the Republican Party.
In an 11-page letter to the committee on Friday, McCarthy’s lawyer said the committee had no authority to issue summonses to lawmakers under chamber rules and asked for answers to a series of questions and documents if his client complied.
Lawyer Elliott Burke requested a list of “topics the committee selected would like to discuss with the leader and the constitutional and legal justification justifying the request.”
“I expressly reserve the right of Leader McCarthy to assert any other applicable privilege or objection to the summons of the elected committee,” Berke wrote.
A House of Representatives panel said the testimony of Republican lawmakers was crucial to their investigation, as each of the men was in contact with then-President Donald Trump and his allies during the weeks and days leading up to the Capitol uprising. Some attended meetings and called on the White House to try to overturn the 2020 presidential results.
McCarthy admitted that he spoke with Trump on January 6 while Trump supporters beat police in front of the Capitol and forcibly entered the building. But he did not share many details. The committee asked for information about his talks with Trump “before, during and after” the uprising.
His apparent challenge is a new challenge for the committee, as lawmakers decided to take the extraordinary and politically risky step of summoning their own colleagues.
“To get Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to take part in this political trick will change the House forever,” the California lawmaker wrote Thursday in The Wall Street Journal with GOP spokesman Jim Jordan of Ohio.
The commission must now decide whether to impose the summons, although it wants to complete the investigation and prepare for a series of public hearings in early June. He can refer legislators to the ethics committee of the House of Representatives or take steps to disrespect them.
Summonses were issued to McCarthy, Jordan and representatives Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama in mid-May. The group has already questioned more than 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 100,000 documents as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries.
“I have no relevant information that would contribute to any legitimate legislative goal,” Jordan said in a letter detailing the reasons for not cooperating. The others indicated after the summons were issued that they would not cooperate either.
Perry’s lawyer sent a letter to the commission earlier this week, saying he could not “comply with the clear conscience” with the summons because he did not believe it was valid under the rules of the house.
Requests for comment from Biggs and Brooks were not returned immediately.
Earlier, the committee requested voluntary co-operation from the five lawmakers, along with a handful of other GOP members, but all refused to speak to the committee, which has been debating for months whether to issue subpoenas.
McCarthy and the others were called to testify before investigators this week and next. McCarthy, who aspires to chair the House of Representatives if the Republicans take over the majority next year, said the committee’s decision would have a lasting impact.
“Every member of the minority will be subjected to forced interrogation by the majority, under oath, without grounds for justice and at the expense of taxpayers,” the report said.
In a separate move, McCarthy and Republican Republican No. 2 Louisiana Republican Steve Scaliz filed a lawsuit in support of Donald Trump’s ally Steve Bannon, who faces criminal charges of contempt of publicity for contempt of a subpoena. In the letters, the lawyers of the two write that the commission does not have the authority to issue subpoenas, an argument that has been rejected in other court proceedings.
Lawyers also wrote that McCarthy and Scaliz submitted the letters “out of concern about the potential damage to institutional rules and order of the House of Representatives.”
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