House panel not planning to seek Trump’s testimony on Capitol attack

Zoe Lofgren, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, on Capitol Hill in March. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not expecting to call Donald Trump to testify about potentially unlawful schemes to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, its chairman said on Tuesday.

The panel has been weighing for months whether to seek voluntary cooperation or subpoena the former president in its wide-ranging inquiry in an effort to obtain his insight into unlawful schemes to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was “not our expectation” to demand testimony from Trump.