U.S. House panel probing Capitol riot subpoenas Roger Stone, Alex Jones

[November 23, 2021]    By Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol said on Monday it issued subpoenas to Alex Jones, founder of the right-wing website Infowars, and Roger Stone, an ally of former President Donald Trump.

Alex Jones of Infowars is followed by political operative Roger Stone (L) prior to the testimony of Google CEO Sundar Pichai at a House Judiciary Committee hearing “examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Young

The committee also issued subpoenas seeking documents and testimony from Dustin Stockton, a political activist linked to longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon, and Stockton's fiancee, Jennifer Lawrence.

Stockton and Lawrence were members of the group We Build the Wall, which was raided by federal agents in August 2020 as part of a fraud investigation.

It also issued a subpoena to Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump.

The panel has now issued more than three dozen subpoenas and received testimony from more than 200 witnesses.

Stone said in a statement he had not yet seen the subpoena, adding: "I had no advance knowledge of the events that took place at the Capitol on that day."

The four others who were issued the latest subpoenas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bannon, who defied a subpoena from the House Select Committee, was indicted earlier this month on two counts of contempt of Congress.

A mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in a failed attempt to prevent formal congressional certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The committee is scrutinizing Trump's actions relating to those events. Bannon is the first to face criminal charges arising from the panel's inquiry.

Nearly 700 people have been charged with taking part in the riot at the Capitol. It was the worst attack on the seat of the U.S. government since the War of 1812.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)

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