Ex-Trump Political Director Subpoenaed in Capitol Riot Probe

(Bloomberg) -- A former White House political director hired in March by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to direct the party’s midterm election efforts has been subpoenaed by the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Brian Jack, who served as an assistant to the president and White political director under former President Donald Trump, is among six people targeted in new panel subpoenas seeking closed-door depositions and documents, the committee said Friday. 

“Some of the witnesses we subpoenaed today apparently worked to stage the rallies on January 5th and 6th, and some appeared to have had direct communication with the former President regarding the rally at the Ellipse directly preceding the attack on the U.S. Capitol,” Representative Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans, said in a statement.

Others to receive subpoenas include Robert Peede Jr., a former Trump White House advance director, and Ohio Republican congressional candidate Max Miller, who previously worked as a White House aide to Trump and worked on his campaign. 

The committee said Jack’s subpoena is tied to his having “reached out to several Members of Congress on behalf of the former President to ask them to speak” at a rally supporting the former president’s allegations of election fraud near the White House on Jan. 6. That event preceded the Capitol siege.

The committee wants to speak to Peede and Miller, it says, about them having “met with the former President in his private dining room off the Oval Office on January 4th, 2021 to discuss the January 6th Ellipse rally and the speakers at the rally.”

Other subpoenas went to: 

• Bryan Lewis, who the committee said obtained a permit for a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6  to “urge Congress to nullify electoral votes from states that made illegal changes to voting rules during their elections.”
• Ed Martin, who the committee identified as an organizer for the “Stop the Steal” movement and who was involved in the planning and financing of the demonstration that immediately preceded the riot;
• Kimberly Fletcher and her organization, Moms for America, who the committee said helped organize rallies Jan. 5 and 6 supporting the Trump’s allegations of election fraud;

The panel so far has met with nearly 300 witnesses, Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, tweeted. 

McCarthy’s office on Friday confirmed Jack remains in his role directing GOP campaign efforts. The Republican leader did not immediately comment on the subpoena. 

Thompson states in subpoena letters that all six must produce documents for the committee by Dec. 23. The closed-door depositions are scheduled for Jan. 4 for Lewis and Fletcher, Jan. 5 for Martin, Jan. 6 for Miller, Jan. 7 for Peede, and Jan. 10 for Jack.

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