Former President Donald Trump failed to show up for testimony before the House January 6th Committee on November 14. The Committee issued a subpoena to the former president in October, calling on him to testify and provide documents.
"The truth is that Donald Trump, like several of his closest allies, is hiding from the Select Committee’s investigation and refusing to do what more than a thousand other witnesses have done," January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney said in a joint statement.
On November 11, Trump filed a lawsuit against the House January 6th Committee to avoid cooperating with the subpoena issued in October calling on him to testify.
The suit argues that, while some former presidents in the past have volunteered to testify or provide documents in response to congressional subpoenas, “no president or former president has ever been compelled to do so.”
In an announcement, Trump’s attorney David A. Warrington said, “long-held precedent and practice maintain that separation of powers prohibits Congress from compelling a President to testify before it.”
The subpoena had ordered the former president to submit 19 documents by November 4 and for him to testify before the committee on November 14. Trump has done neither.
While the committee has yet to say what actions they will pursue moving forward, Thompson said in an interview with the New York Times that seeking contempt of Congress charges against Trump “could be an option. And we’ll have to wait and see. The first thing we’ll do is see how we address the lawsuit. At some point after that, we’ll decide the path forward.”
