Stephen Bannon is one of the people close to former President Trump summoned to testify in Congress. PHOTO: Washington Post on behalf of Magnolia Pictures.
James Politi in Washington
A bipartisan panel investigating the Jan.6 attacks on the Capitol has named four close advisers to former President Donald Trump, including Steve Bannon, his former political adviser, and Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff.
The request for “documents and testimony” issued to key members of Trump’s entourage was announced by the House Select Committee late Thursday. The panel indicated that it seeks information from individuals who “were in communication with, or working in, the White House during the days prior to the January 6 insurrection and / or that same day.”
Along with Bannon and Meadows, the committee also cited Dan Scavino, a former White House deputy chief of staff for communications, and Kashyap Patel, a former defense department official.
The nine-member committee is led by Bennie Thompson, D-MS, and includes six other Democrats and two GOP members who have criticized Trump – Liz Cheney from Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger from Illinois.
The panel explained the request for information made to Meadows as he “allegedly contacted” officials from the state and justice departments to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election – and was also “in communication with the organizers” of a demonstration. which preceded the attacks on the Capitol.
According to the panel, Bannon urged Trump to “focus his efforts” on January 6 and “allegedly attended a meeting at the Willard Hotel” near the White House on January 5 to “persuade members of Congress to block the certification of the election the next day ”. The committee also noted that Bannon was overheard saying on January 5 that “there is going to be a big mess tomorrow.”
Bannon and Patel are scheduled to appear for an address on October 14, while Meadows and Scavino will appear on October 15.
The Jan.6 assault on the Capitol caused multiple deaths and countless injuries, as well as physical damage to the headquarters of the U.S. Legislature and trauma to members of Congress and their work teams, in what has been widely described as one from the darkest days of US democracy.
Trump was indicted by the House of Representatives accused of fomenting the assault in his attempt to stop the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on January 20, but Trump was not convicted by the Senate, for which a qualified majority was needed.
The push to investigate the events of January 6 has been led largely by Democrats and some Republicans, including Cheney and Kinzinger, who challenged the former president and questioned his conduct and actions after the 2020 election.
Most Republicans in Congress have dismissed the need for further investigation, or have attempted to include Trump supporters on the select committee, something rejected by House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
According to the committee, Patel, who was chief of staff for Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary, had been discussing “Capitol security” with senior Pentagon officials on the day of the attack and had been speaking with Meadows for “all the day ”January 6.
The panel also alleges that Scavino was sending Twitter messages on the day of the attack, and that the day before he had been encouraging people to “be part of the story.”
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