Roger Stone, Alex Jones among new subpoenas issued by Jan. 6 panel

The Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued five new subpoenas to several ex-Trump administration officials and allies, including Roger Stone, spokesman Taylor Budowich and InfoWars founder Alex Jones.

The committee said the subpoenas are focused on the planning and financing of Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 rallies in Washington, D.C., the subsequent march and deadly riot.

“The Select Committee is seeking information about the rallies and subsequent march to the Capitol that escalated into a violent mob attacking the Capitol and threatening our democracy,” the committee’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. “We need to know who organized, planned, paid for, and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with officials in the White House and Congress.”

The subpoenas, which include demands for records and testimony, were also issued for Dustin Stockman, and his fiancé, Jennifer Lawrence. Both were involved in the rallies, the committee said.

Before this new wave of testimony and document demands, the committee issued nearly three dozen subpoenas for former Trump officials, advisers and Jan. 6 rally organizers.

So far, the committee has met with about 200 unnamed witnesses, who spoke voluntarily, received 25,000 pages of documents and has gotten more than 200 tips through a hotline, said California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the panel.

Court fight over release of Trump documents continues

Monday’s demands comes on the same day the committee and the National Archives responded to former President Trump’s arguments to an appellate court to stop a release of Jan. 6-related documents. Trump appealed a district court ruling earlier this month that would have sent hundreds of pages of records to the committee.

The lawsuit came after President Biden had waived executive privilege over Trump documents.

Last week, Trump’s legal team filed a brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit arguing a dispute between a former and sitting president highlights the critical concerns over executive privilege. Another ruling in favor of the committee, Trump argued, would have a direct impact on the advice President Biden and future presidents can obtain without fear of public disclosure.

But the defendants in the case, the committee and the National Archives, slammed those claims. For example, the legal team for the committee said Trump failed to demonstrate how withholding the documents would harm the office of the presidency.

“The only harm that Mr. Trump asserts is that the release of the requested records will compromise the interests of the Executive Branch,” the committee said in its filing on Monday. But “that assertion of harm is far outweighed by the surpassing public interest in a complete and timely investigation of the attack on the Capitol, as President Biden has determined.”

With an expedited schedule in place, the appellate court is set to hear oral arguments in the case next week, on Tuesday, Nov. 30.

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