Jan. 6 select committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) on Sunday didn’t rule out the possibility of the panel subpoenaing former President Trump days after the House moved to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress as a result of his subpoena defiance.
Kinzinger is right. Subpoenaing Trump would likely distract from the overall investigation and has the potential to backfire spectacularly. I realize that a lot of people would love to see Trump behind bars, if only for contempt of Congress, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk.
Hard disagree.
Moreover, this is not about an actual issuance–it’s about sending a message+. It’s how you flip a Mob family.
Watch how Donald reacts. Watch what the committee DOES.
[e/t/a] + e.g., “Flip now, motherfuckers. Or do time later.”
I cannot comment on the legality of Chairman Thompson’s efforts.
But I can comment on the significant achievement of Trump having been elected as The President of the United States, an Office which combines the symbolisms of a Head of State and a Monarch.
That symbolic duality pushes against treating Trump’s malfeasance like the malfeasance of others not having held that Office.
And although the fucker could never articulate why this is so, his cunning, corrupt, devious, sadistic criminal mind knew it to be absolutely true.
And, yet, because of the enormous damage this man has done across a range of American norms, law, values and, yes, lives, there needs to be an accounting.
I am not sure what all the committee has simmering. There are LOTS of things Chump could be charged with even though we may not be able to get actual smoking gun Coup admissions…such as he personally orchestrated and committed the insurrection. There are lots of campaign violations, and election tampering, and - The Political Coercion Act 18 USC 610
Getting subpoenas for all those documents and calls and witnesses might necessarily require, or have no downside, subpoenaing Chump. Then, of course, there is the high probability he refuses to comply and gets a DOJ prosecution on black-letter law. You defy a duly issued congressional subpoena, you get found guilty and likely go to jail. I don’t know how it all plays out as a net + or - distraction wise, but if it doesn’t take too much effort or time from the committee to issue the subpoena, and vote to refer him for prosecution when he rejects it; that doesn’t seem like too much of a distraction.
Yeah I want them to dangle this possibility over him for a minute before any decisions get made, too. In general I agree with you.
This is basically a mob prosecution. Flip the lower level guys to eventually get to the Don. Trump sees this clearly in his lizard brain, and is pulling out the stops in an attempt to derail the investigation with bogus claims of “executive privilege”, not just for himself, but his co-conspirators.
I have always been told the President is not a king. That he is as accountable to the laws of the land as everyone else. And certainly if that President, now ex-President, attempted to break perhaps the most sacred of his duties, he should be held accountable.
Having said that, if actually forced to testify, Trump would probably take the fifth. He’d have too. He’s guilty as sin.
It’s a consideration – TFG is “distraction” personified. But note what Kinzinger also said, which is not actually all that different from what Thompson said:
[…] but that if the former president has pieces of information that it needs, then they “certainly will” issue a subpoena for him.
Subpoenaing the former incumbent for the sake of, oh I dunno, making him mad, or in the hope that he’ll refuse and provoke a criminal complaint, is not worth the circus.
Subpoenaing him because there are things the committee needs to ask him in the course of their investigation, and can’t learn some other way, is just them doing their job.
I’m kind of in-between in the comments. Seems like they should start interviewing, collecting evidence, and when they have some pretty irrefutable testimony that exposes and could indict the TFG, they should hit him over the head with it. TOIFG --Twice-impeached, One-term, Indicted Former Guy. And, soon (in DC time), we can call him Felon.
I agree. I’d love to see him actually have to do it - physically under oath say he takes the 5th. On TV, coast to coast and around the world.
Honestly, at that point, he’ll be getting Ronny Jackson to write him a sick letter. Like “bone spurs.”
“You will have to excuse the 45th President from testifying inasmuch as he has bone spurs in his ass and can’t sit down in the witness’ chair.”
Ronnie Ronny Jackson, Web MD.
Trump doesn’t have unique knowledge of anything related to J6 other than his personal state of mind. And he would obviously just lie about his state of mind, so there is no reason to request his testimony. You’re not going to learn anything from it.
My non-lawyer opinion:
Trump survived “grab 'em by the pussy,” “very fine people on both sides,” “shithole counties,” “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," and two impeachments. Please don’t subpoena Trump again unless you intend to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department in the certain event that Trump claims complete innocence and refuses to recognize or obey the subpoena, and please be sure that this, or some future Justice Department, will actually prosecute him.
This may be a ploy to get others to talk in the interest of self-preservation. If Benedict Fatso were to testify, his second instinct (after proclaiming himself innocent) would be to throw his co-conspirators under the bus; and everyone involved knows that.
But this is where it will make the most sense to do the hearing behind closed doors. We don’t need to see this. T**** doesn’t need the cameras to obstruct, puff and bluster. Behind closed doors takes away all the ‘fun’ of making a ‘circus’ out of the committee because no one will even see it.
Keep a closed circuit camera running to record the proceedings, but no broadcast. Nothing.
And don’t tell him until he walks into the chamber, should he decide this would be a great venue for posturing, and take the wind out of those sails just after the swearing in (maybe we can see that part, but the cameras go mysteriously dark soon after).
"Asked during an interview on CBS whether the panel issued looking to issue a subpoena to the former president, Thompson replied that ‘nobody’s off limits’.”
How about gin-soaked, violent-insurrection-aiding wives of sitting Supreme Court justices?
(Asking for a dead Capitol police officer.)
Taking the 5th and getting away with that would just be why we have that in the Bill of Rights though. Taking the 5th before a star chamber committee won’t make him seem weaker at all IMO.
Let’s do this! That’s a great idea.
Kinzinger is right about the circus. He is also right about if evidence requires a subpoena then subpoena the bastard.