House Capitol riot probe subpoenas aides who met with Trump two days before Jan. 6 rally, insurrection

KEY POINTS

• The select House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued subpoenas to two former aides to ex-President Donald Trump, who met with him two days before the attack, and four others.
• The aides, Robert "Bobby" Peede Jr., and Max Miller, met with Trump "in his private dining room off the Oval Office on Jan. 4 to discuss speakers and other aspects of a rally at which Trump appeared.
• Trump's rally was wrapping up as a mob of his supporters invaded the grounds of the Capitol, and ultimately breached its walls, disrupting a joint session of Congress that was confirming Joe Biden's win.

Max Miller arrives at a rally with former President Donald Trump at the Lorain County Fairgrounds on June 26, 2021 in Wellington, Ohio.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

The select House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Friday said it issued subpoenas for testimony and records to two former aides to ex-President Donald Trump, who met with him two days before the attack, and to four other people.

The aides, Robert "Bobby" Peede Jr., and Max Miller, met with Trump "in his private dining room off the Oval Office" on Jan. 4 to discuss speakers and other aspects of a rally Trump appeared at on the Ellipse outside of the White House on Jan. 6, the committee said.

Trump's rally that day was wrapping up as a mob of his supporters invaded the grounds of the Capitol, and ultimately breached its walls, disrupting a joint session of Congress that was confirming the Electoral College victory of President Joe Biden.

An image of President Donald Trump appears on video screens before his speech to supporters from the Ellipse at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, as the Congress prepares to certify the electoral college votes.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

At the rally, Trump urged supporters to fight against confirmation of Biden's win. The then-president falsely claimed that he was the victim of widespread ballot fraud in several swing states.

Another witness subject to the new subpoenas, Brian Jack, served as Trump's political affairs director, "and reportedly reached out to several Members of Congress on behalf of the former President to ask them to speak at the Ellipse on January 6th," the House committee said in a news release.

Also subpoenaed were Bryan Lewis, Ed Martin and Kimberly Fletcher.

Lewis obtained a permit for a rally outside the Capitol that day to urge Congress "to nullify electoral votes from states that made illegal changes to voting rules during their elections," the committee said.

Martin "was an organizer of the Stop the Steal movement and was involved in the planning and financing the Stop the Steal protest on January 6th that directly preceded the attack on the Capitol," according to the panel.

Fletcher and her group Moms for America, helped organize a Jan. 5 rally in Washington and the Jan. 6 Ellipse rally to support Trump's false claims of election fraud.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who heads the probe, said in a statement, "The Select Committee expects these witnesses to join the hundreds of individuals who have already cooperated with our investigation as we work to provide the American people with answers about what happened on January 6th and ensure nothing like that day ever happens again."

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