(UnitedHeadlines.com) – On Nov. 27, a federal judge blocked former President Donald Trump’s efforts to subpoena information related to the House investigation of Jan. 6, calling it a “fishing expedition.”
Due to materials allegedly missing from the panel’s archives, Trump and his legal team had sought to subpoena House Jan. 6 select committee chairman and Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson. As part of Trump’s denied request, he had also sought to subpoena Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration, General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security Johnathan Meyer, and Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber.
Trump’s attorneys also argued the investigation into the former president by special counsel Jack Smith significantly overlapped with the House select committee’s investigation.
In her order denying the subpoena request, Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote that it appears to be a “fishing expedition” due to the “broad scope” of the requested records and the “vague description of their potential relevance.”
Trump’s lawyers questioned whether materials not used during the panel’s hearings or featured in its publications had been “lost, destroyed, or altered” after an August reply by Thompson to Loudermilk, who stated that some records were missing. Loudermilk, who is the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight for the Committee on House Administration, is leading the investigation into the work of the Jan. 6 committee.
In his reply, Thompson wrote that temporary committee records not elevated by the select committee were not archived. He added that “the Select Committee was not obligated” to archive all video recordings of transcribed interviews or depositions.
In December 2022, the select committee’s final report was released, which accused Trump of engaging in a criminal “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election results. In August, he was indicted on the allegations and pleaded not guilty. Chutkan will oversee the trial that is scheduled to start March 4. She is still considering several pretrial motions from Trump’s legal team.
Copyright 2023, UnitedHeadlines.com
