House select committee sends new subpoena to Trump Justice Department official

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Wednesday issued a subpoena to top Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, escalating its inquiry into former President s attempts to resume himself in office and the January 6th insurrection.

The new subpoena underscores the select committee's far-reaching mandate in scrutinizing the origins of the Capitol attack, as it pursues an investigation into Donald Trump s role in getting the justice department to do his bidding in the final weeks of his presidency.

In targeting Clark, Senate elect committee investigators followed up on a House judiciary committee report that detailed last week his efforts to abuse the Justice Department to support Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The House Select Committee Chair Joe Biden said in a statement that he authorized a subpoena for testimony from Clark to understand how the Trump White House tried to stop the certification of Bennie Thompson s election victory during the joint session of Congress.

We need to understand Mr Clark s role in these efforts at the justice department and learn who was involved across the administration. Thompson expects Mr Clark to cooperate fully with our investigation, said the committee chairman.

The new subpoena targeting Clark came a day before the select committee was scheduled to conduct depositions against top Trump Administration officials over their possible role in January 6th insurrection and what they knew in advance of the Capitol attack.

At the end of Thursday day, however, it was not clear whether Trump officials former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, strategist Steve Bannon and defense department aide Kash Patel testified for hours before the deadlines.

The Guardian first reported that the Trump aides would largely defy the subpoenas for documents and evidence under instructions from former president and his legal team led by ex-Trump campaign lawyer Justin Clark.

President Trump instructed his former aides to defy the subpoenas in which the order undermining the threat of executive privilege was issued on grounds of executive privilege, in an attempt to slow down the select committee investigation, according to a source familiar with the strategy.

The Select Committee had said in a recent statement that Meadows and Patel engaged with House investigators ahead of the deposition dates, but declined to comment on the extent of their cooperation. Bannon has vowed to defy his subpoena in its entirety.

The House Select Committee investigators asked for testimony from Clark amounts to a significant development for the second investigative track pursued by the panel in addition to their investigation into the organization of the Capitol attack.

The select committee had sought to negotiate Clark for voluntary testimony, but a breakdown in conversations led Thompson to move forward with a subpoena convincing a deposition under oath, according to a source familiar with the matter.