The House committee investigating the Capitol riots have subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony.
The former president will now be compelled to give evidence to the January 6 committee about the events in early 2021 which saw five people killed and hundreds, including many law enforcement officers, injured.
The select committee panel voted unanimously to compel the former president to appear. “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player,” said Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair.
Cheney added: “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers.”
At the start of the hearing on Thursday, members of the committee, who sayTrump incited his supporters to storm the Capitol, made their strongest indication yet pointing towards the likelihood of sending a criminal referral to the Justice Department urging the agency to prosecute Mr Trump over the attack.
The vote seeking Trump’s testimony also came as the panel is producing vivid new details and evidence of Trump’s state of mind as he refused to concede his loss to Joe Biden, resulting in the 2021 riot at the Capitol building.
Before that, the panel showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders phoning officials for help during the assault.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can be seen talking to governors in neighboring Virginia and Maryland. Later the footage shows Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders as the group asks the acting attorney general for help.
“They’re breaking the law in many different ways — quite frankly at the instigation of the president of the United States,” Pelosi is heard saying at one point.
Also, in never-before-seen Secret Service messages, the panel produced evidence of the way extremist groups provided the muscle in the fight for Trump’s presidency, planning weeks before the attack to send a violent force to Washington.
The testimony of the key witness, coupled with surveillance footage represents some of the strongest known evidence to date of possible obstruction of justice by the former Republican president.
The New York Times separately reported on Wednesday that Trump aide Walt Nauta was captured on security camera footage from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach moving boxes out of a storage area at the centre of the investigation.
