GOP lawmakers subpoenaed in Jan. 6 riot probe
STORY: Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy and four other lawmakers are being summoned to cooperate in an investigation of the deadly January 2021 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters.
The Republicans were subpoenaed on Thursday by the House Select committee conducting the probe.
It marks an escalation between the two sides, after the five men had rejected voluntary cooperation with the investigation.
Along with McCarthy, the others are Jim Jordan, Mo Brooks, Scott Perry and Andy Biggs.
All five on Thursday said they believed the committee's probe is partisan and illegitimate, but did not directly answer questions about whether they would comply with the subpoenas.
The attack on Jan. 6, 2021 saw Trump supporters storm the Capitol building to protest Democrat Joe Biden's victory over him in the November 2020 election.
The committee is trying to establish what then-President Trump did while thousands of his supporters attacked police, vandalized the Capitol and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives.
It believes the five subpoenaed Republicans have information about events leading up to the attack.
That’s according to a press release by Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat and the Select Committee chairman.
McCarthy has publicly zigzagged on Trump's responsibility in the attack and faced criticism even from some fellow conservatives.
He had said in a statement in January that he would not cooperate with the committee’s probe.
