The House January 6 select committee’s investigation is now gathering evidence from more of former president Donald Trump’s Cabinet members in hopes of learning whether they seriously considered declaring him incapacitated after he incited a riotous mob to attack the US Capitol.
According to multiple reports, the panel has interviewed Steven Mnuchin, the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice producer who served as Mr Trump’s treasury secretary from 2017 until the end of his term on 20 January 2021.
Mick Mulvaney, the onetime acting White House chief of staff who resigned as Mr Trump’s special envoy for Northern Ireland after the attack, is set to give evidence before the panel on Thursday, and committee members are also preparing to interview former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The panel has already interviewed at least one of Mr Trump’s former cabinet secretaries. During previous hearings, the presentation of evidence included excerpts from a videotaped deposition with Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia who served as Mr Trump’s labour secretary during the last days of his term.
The committee is examining whether cabinet members took any steps to invoke a section of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution that would have had the effect of removing him from office on the grounds of incapacity. If then-vice president Mike Pence and a majority of Mr Trump’s cabinet had issued a “written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Grassley, who at the time was the upper chamber’s president pro tempore.
That declaration would have kicked off a process under which Congress would have had to vote on whether Mr Trump was able to resume holding the powers of the presidency, but because such a vote could be delayed by up to 21 days, the effect would have been to make Mr Pence the acting president until Joe Biden’s 20 January 2021 inauguration.
House Democrats, led by Ms Pelosi, called on Mr Pence and the cabinet to declare Mr Trump incapacitated in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, but Mr Pence declined to participate in the process.
