By Kevin JohnsonDavid and Jackson|USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – The House Committee investigating the Capitol attack voted Thursday to subpoena Donald Trump in an extraordinary move seeking a direct confrontation with the former president accused of instigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and leading attempts to subvert the 2020 election.
“The vast weight of the evidence so far has shown us that the central cause of Jan. 6 was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed,” Vice Chairperson Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said. “None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it.
“We must seek the testimony under oath of Jan. 6’s central player,” Cheney said, adding that the committee had “sufficient” information to issue criminal referrals related to multiple figures in the panel’s investigation. “We are obligated to seek answers from the man who set this all in motion.”
The vote came during the committee’s ninth, and possibly final public hearing, in which lawmakers offered closing arguments, interspersed with witness testimony, highlighting Trump’s chaotic efforts to cling to power knowing that the election was lost.