The decision by the committee investigating the Jan. 6 US Capitol insurrection to slap House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republican lawmakers with subpoenas threatens to plunge Congress into deeper division.
No one could recall a committee other than ethics panels trying to force the testimony of colleagues, and the decision risks a near-term legal clash and long-term political reprisals.
“We’re in a new chapter,” said Thomas Spulak, a King & Spalding LLP partner who served as staff director to the House Rules Committee and later as general counsel to the chamber in the 1990s.
