The committee of the United States lower house that investigates the assault on the Capitol, which occurred on January 6, summoned this Monday to declare six key advisers of the re-election campaign of former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
The decision comes two weeks after that committee found far-right ideologue Steve Bannon, a Trump ally, in contempt for refusing to appear before congressmen to speak about the extraordinary assault.
Among the six cited on Monday is the former head of Trump’s re-election campaign, Bill Stepien; and the former president’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was indicted in the investigation into the so-called “Russian plot” in 2019, although he later received a presidential pardon.
Another of those summoned is John Eastman, a lawyer who designed a legal strategy to try to perpetuate Trump in power, despite having lost last November’s elections against the current president, Joe Biden.
In a letter that leaked to the US press in September, Eastman alleged that the one who until January was the US Vice President, Mike Pence, had the unilateral authority to deny the Presidency to Biden in the session that took place in Congress on January 6, when the assault occurred.
Eastman acknowledged in an October interview that such a strategy was “crazy,” as various experts on the US Constitution had already pointed out.
Among those cited to testify is also Bernard Kerik, who participated in the complaints of alleged electoral fraud in key states, something of which there is no evidence, and who participated in a series of meetings at the Willard Hotel in Washington to try to help Trump to retain power.
The committee’s roster is completed by two former Trump reelection campaign advisers, Jason Miller and Angela McCallum.
“The committee needs to know all the details of the efforts (of Trump’s advisers) to turn around the election result, including who they were talking to in the White House and Congress,” said the committee chairman. Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson.
The legislators also want to clarify “what kind of connection” had those Trump allies “with the rallies that turned into a riot” and led to the assault on the Capitol, and “who paid for it all, ” Thompson added in a statement.
On January 6, five people died and about 140 agents were attacked by pro-Trump protesters, who stormed the Capitol armed with axes, bats, and hockey sticks, among other objects, according to data from the authorities.
The assault came after a rally in which Trump refused to accept his defeat in the November elections and urged his supporters to march towards the headquarters of Congress, where lawmakers were gathered to certify Biden’s electoral victory.