The Jan. 6 committee has been negotiating with lawyers for former President Donald Trump and is hoping to obtain testimony from him that could span multiple days, according to Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY).
Trump has been tight-lipped in public about whether he will comply with the subpoena lodged against him last month, but his team has been served the subpoena demanding deposition and a slew of documents. He has until Friday to comply with the document demand and Nov. 14 for the deposition.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS DONALD TRUMP
“The committee is in discussion with President Trump’s attorneys. He has an obligation to comply,” Cheney declared during an interview with PBS’s Judy Woodruff. “We have not made determinations about the format itself, but it will be done under oath. It will be done over multiple days.”
Cheney sidestepped questions about whether she believes that Trump will comply with the subpoena but insisted he has an obligation to do so. In a letter accompanying the subpoena, the panel cited a slew of historical precedents to argue it had the legal power to issue its demands of the former president.
“He has an obligation to comply. And we treat this and take this very seriously. This is not a situation where, you know, the committee is going to put itself at the mercy of Donald Trump in terms of, you know, his efforts to create a circus,” she added.
Trump has reportedly tapped the Dhillon Law Group to help navigate his dealings with the panel. While refraining from committing or defying the subpoena demand, Trump has disparaged the committee for its subpoena.
“The double standard of the Unselects between what has taken place on the ‘Right,’ and what has taken place with [the] radical Left, lawless groups such as antifa, Black Lives Matter, and others, is startling and will never be acceptable, even to those who will be writing the history of what you have done to America,” Trump wrote in a lengthy statement following the subpoena.
Key acolytes of his such as Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro have defied committee subpoena demands and were later held in contempt of Congress. Bannon was slapped with a four-month prison sentence and $6,500 in fines last month for the contempt charges. Meanwhile, Navarro is set to head to trial in November.
However, the clock is ticking for the panel, with Republicans forecast as the favorites to win the House in the midterm elections and the panel expected to dissolve shortly thereafter. Trump could try to run out the clock with court challenges.
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During the wide-ranging interview, Cheney also dodged a question about whether she believes the Justice Department should indict Trump.
“The committee will have to make decisions about criminal referrals, and I don’t want to get ahead of the committee on that,” she said. “I would anticipate we won’t have disagreements about that, but we’ll have to make those decisions when we come to it.”
