The Jan. 6 committee is turning up the heat on members of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet about the effort to invoke the 25th Amendment to oust him for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin recently testified to the congressional panel about reports that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed removing Trump from office in the days after Jan. 6, several media outlets reported Thursday.
Pompeo is expected to appear before the panel soon.
The former top diplomat has Republican presidential ambitions and may not want to publicly discuss any moves he made to cross Trump, who remains the most popular leader in the GOP.
Pompeo denounced the committee as a sham in an interview with Fox News, but stopped short of saying he would snub the panel.
“It’s been a monkey court, it’s been a circus, it’s been totally unfair,” Pompeo said.
Trump's former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney testified Thursday to the committee. He quit from a post as envoy for Northern Ireland after Jan. 6.
The committee is also in talks to gain the cooperation of other former Cabinet members including John Ratcliffe, who is said to have backed away from participating in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.
They might also seek testimony from Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, both of whom quit in protest of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack.
A growing list of one-time Trump acolytes have already cooperated with the panel, including acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and Rosen’s predecessor, Attorney General William Barr.
