Don’t hold your breath, but according to Rep. Adam Kinzinger—a Republican member of the Jan. 6 committee—talks are happening now among panel members about whether to seek an interview with former Vice President Mike Pence and former President Donald Trump.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kinzinger said the committee had not decided if they would request that Pence cooperate voluntarily or if they would up the ante and issue a subpoena straightaway. The request for Trump to appear is also tenuous right now and historically, the committee’s chairman has said such a request would be doubtful.
“We haven’t made a decision,” Committee Chair Bennie Thompson said twice this week to reporters on Capitol Hill.
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The committee is on track to meet again on July 21. While the hearing has not been officially announced by the probe yet, it is anticipated that the eighth public hearing will be held in prime time. Kinzinger is also expected to lead a portion of the presentation that Thursday that will primarily focus on the hours Trump went silent during the attack as pleas for help flooded the White House.
While the committee has been publicly divided about whether or not it will issue a criminal referral for Trump in recent weeks, Kinzinger told The Wall Street Journal a decision on this front could be taking shape.
Kinzinger said if the Trump administration isn’t held accountable for what happened on Jan. 6, it would set “a way worse precedent” than if there were no prosecutions at all.
“Because what you’re saying is now, when you’re president, you can do anything,” Kinzinger told the Post.
Importantly, members of Pence’s staff have already come forward including his Chief of Staff Marc Short and his counsel, Greg Jacob. Both Short and Jacob told the committee in depositions open and closed that Pence was strongly opposed to a scheme to have him unilaterally throw out certified elector slates during the joint session on Jan. 6. Pence’s staff intensely pored over legal precedent and standards and exhausted their research, ultimately determining there was no viable or constitutional path for Pence to reject already-certified slates.
This theory was brought to life by Trump’s onetime attorney John Eastman. Eastman, who penned a six-point strategy to help Trump overturn the election results, has testified before the committee but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to over 100 questions, which included lines of inquiry over the advice he gave to Trump about Pence’s power to reject electoral slates.
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