The Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Robin Vos, a Republican speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly who was targeted by President Donald Trump last weekend for testimony about a phone call he received from the former president in July.
The panel is seeking Vos testimony by Monday, but the Wisconsin lawmaker is suing to block the subpoena.
Vos attached a letter from Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, in his lawsuit. The chair of the Jan. 6 committee asked for his testimony. Thompson cited Trump's efforts to pressure Vos into changing the 2020 election result in Wisconsin after the state Supreme Court sounded a bill in July to restrict the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in future elections. After Vos told Trump that following through on his demand would be unlawful, the former president posted derogatory comments aimed at Vos and endorsed his challenger in the GOP primary.
The circumstances and details regarding your interactions with former President Trump related to the 2020 election are relevant to the Select Committee's investigation and proposed recommendations, Thompson wrote.
NBC News reached out to the committee for comment.
The Wisconsin speaker argues that the subpoena imposes an under burden by demanding his compliance on short notice, so he is suing the committee to enforcing its subpoena, which was first reported by Politico.
The committee served the speaker on the afternoon of September 24, 2022, with a subpoena to appear for a deposition on the morning of September 26, 2022, despite having known for months about the single matter for which it seeks Speaker Vos testimony, according to Vos. This is less than 48 hours notice, and the only intervening day was a Sunday. Vos believes that the House committee's desire to conduct the deposition prior to its public hearing, scheduled Wednesday, is the only explanation for such an extreme timeline.
Vos also argued that the committee's rationale in deposing him is not clear. Vos wrote in July that his conversations with Trump with Trump resulted in a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but they do not relate to the events of January 6th, or even to construe the authorizing resolution broadly on the events leading up to it or its immediate aftermath. The House committee has a lawsuit against the House committee more than a month after he narrowly survived a primary challenge against Trump-backed challenger Adam Steen.
Vos, the longest-serving speaker in Wisconsin history, became a target of the former president's ire for refusing to overturn the 2020 election results in the state for months. After winning in the GOP primary last month, Vos told The Associated Press that lawmakers don't have to be a lapdog to whatever Donald Trump says.