Even after being booted from office in 2020, Donald Trump made it abundantly clear that he intended to assume the role of kingmaker for Republicans in 2022 and beyond. In short, everything Republicans did from Trump’s departure from the Oval going forward was to be reflected through the prism of Donald Trump over the next four years (at least). For their part, Republicans have dutifully obliged him, many going out of their way to out-Trump each other in groveling before his mercurial, unstable personality. Some of them, such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have willingly thrown away the lives of their own citizens in this craven exercise of sheer obsequiousness, to the point where they both may have immolated their own 2024 prospects in the process.
But the Trump beast remains unsatiated. Deprived of his megaphone on Twitter, he has taken to staging his familiar carnival-like rallies again, to keep his braying base of voters stoked and loyal. Still, he clearly misses the limelight afforded to him in his former post. His smug, preening performance as he instigated a violent uprising targeting the U.S. Capitol and members of Congress on Jan. 6 was his last real opportunity to capture the public’s attention. So it’s completely understandable that he would feel a warm, special nostalgia towards that historic day, and especially towards his loyal supporters who cheered the very mention of his name, even as they brutally attacked, assaulted and maimed those Capitol police officers who got in their way.
Trump can now put his worries to rest. His return to the spotlight throughout 2022 is now virtually guaranteed, as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has issued its initial sweeping requests for documents and other materials attesting to Trump’s direct personal involvement in that day’s searing events, the months leading up to it, and the weeks thereafter.
As reported by Josh Kovensky, writing for TalkingPointsMemo:
The House Jan. 6 Committee sent a vast document request on Wednesday, demanding that eight federal agencies provide information relating to former president Trump’s involvement in the Capitol insurrection.
As Kovensky reports, agencies receiving the far-reaching document requests include the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and Department of the Interior. The FBI, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and National Counterterrorism Center are also subject to the requests.
The panel wants records encompassing Trump’s activities, movements, and meetings on Jan. 6, as well as documents and communications from April 1, 2020 until the end of Trump’s term having to do with attempts to contest the 2020 election results and to “delay or impede” the electoral count.
It appears that the House Select Committee intends to go well beyond “leaving no stone unturned,” as the requests seek information implicating nearly every conceivable person involved in Trump’s orbit, including those targeted by Trump in his failed effort to overturn the election, such as the election officials in Georgia whom he tried to strong-arm into altering that state’s vote tallies. As Kovensky notes, “the requests also encompass communications between the White House and Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, as well as Trump 2020 campaign workers like Brad Parscale and pollster Tony Fabrizio.” Nor are Trump’s domestic terrorist allies forgotten in the investigation, as the Committee seeks records pertaining to “QAnon, the Proud Boys, Stop the Steal, Oath Keepers, or Three Percenters,” according to Kovensky.
POLITICO reporters Nicholas Wu and Betsy Woodruff Swan provide some additional sense of the detailed information sought in these requests.
One segment of the request notably seeks "documents and communications related to the mental stability of Donald Trump or his fitness for office."
[...]
The committee asked the National Archives for “all documents and communications within the White House” involving a host of Trump World denizens, including Hope Hicks, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Trump adviser Peter Navarro, Kayleigh McEnany, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Melania Trump, all Trump’s adult children except Tiffany Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone.
[...]
In particular, the committee asks for records on on any potential or actual changes in senior personnel in the period between the election and Inauguration Day, investigations of voter fraud, “all documents and communications involving Mark Meadows, Kurt Olsen, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Joseph diGenova, or Victoria Toensing,” and communications between “any DOJ official and President Trump or any other White House official on January 5–6, 2021.”
The request directed to the Department of Justice is particularly comprehensive, seeking communications between Trump and William Barr leading up to the insurrection, as well as exploring the involvement of any DOJ officials, particularly Trump political appointees in that agency who might have assisted his coup attempt. Communications regarding security measures for the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 are also sought, as well as internal discussions between Justice Department officials on possible scenarios if Trump had demanded their assistance in his treachery. Kovensky notes that the request directed to the Department of Defense seeks a trove of information, communications and documents from Kash Patel, the former aide to California Rep. Devin Nunes who was inexplicably elevated by Trump to chief of staff of the Secretary of Defense in the weeks prior to Jan. 6.
As Kovensky writes:
The panel wants documents and communications involving Patel “relating to civil unrest, violence, or attacks at the U.S. Capitol; challenging, overturning, or questioning the validity of the 2020 election results; or the counting of the electoral college vote on January 6, 2021.”
Since the agencies are now controlled by Biden appointees, and since the DOJ under Merrick Garland has essentially waived executive privilege objections to providing such testimony to the committee among its staff, we can expect a thoroughness to this investigation that simply could not have occurred eight months ago. In fact, I would venture that many people in these agencies will now go out of their way to find and provide such materials to the committee.
As POLITICO reports, although the requests require a response within two weeks of their receipt, some extension of time might be necessary (it is the end of summer, after all).
So Trump need not fear. He will in fact be the center of attention throughout the entirety of 2022.
Just like he wanted.