A man employed as a security professional by Alex Jones, the controversial InfoWars host known for spreading wild conspiracy theories, has been targeted by the January 6 committee as part of its ongoing investigation into Mr Jones and the events of the attack on the Capitol.
In a court filing dated Tuesday, an attorney for Mr Jones requested that Timothy Enlow, the security guard, be added to Mr Jones’s lawsuit against the committee as he seeks to block it from obtaining his phone records. Mr Jones’s attorney alleges in the filing that Mr Enlow received a notice from his cell carrier last week informing him that a congressional subpoena for his phone data had been received, and that the committee’s decision to target Mr Enlow stemmed from a belief that he would not be able to mount the same kind of costly legal defence that Mr Jones is mounting.
“[The committee] issued a subpoena for the communications of one of Jones’ employees, Tim Enlow, who they assumed was less financially able to defend himself against the subpoena. The purpose of this subpoena was to obtain, by third-party disclosure, the communications that Jones had refused to produce to the Select Committee and sought this Court’s intervention to protect his constitutional rights,” reads the filing from Mr Jones’s attorney.
“Jones and Enlow claim that the subpoena issued to obtain Enlow’s communications was merely a backdoor to obtain Jones’ communications in the face of pending litigation seeking to protect those communications from the Defendants’ eyes,” the court filing continues.
The FBI investigation into the January 6 attack has already resulted in charges for Owen Shroyer, an employee of Mr Jones who was in attendance at the Capitol riot and is accused of disorderly conduct as well as entering a restricted area. His attorneys have sought to have the charges dismissed, so far without success.
Last year, Mr Shroyer declared he was innocent of the charges.
Mr Jones and other right-wing personalities who were in and around Washington DC during the Capitol riot are being looked at by the House select committee even if they were not personally present for the riot due to the committee’s desire to understand whether organisers of two Stop the Steal-themed rallies in the city that day knew that violence was likely to occur or even potentially planned ahead of time.
A host of figures associated with the two rallies including Ali Alexander, a right-wing provocateur and activist, have already directly been targeted by the committee with subpoenas.
Lawmakers on the bipartisan panel have stressed that despite a handful of public episodes of defiance of the committee’s subpoenas, the vast majority of witnesses are complying with the panel’s requests or demands.
