Republican National Committee sues Jan. 6 panel over vendor subpoena

[March 10, 2022]   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Wednesday sued the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol seeking to block its subpoena of an RNC vendor.

Police release tear gas into a crowd of pro-Trump protesters during clashes at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, the RNC said the House Select Committee's subpoena of Salesforce, which organizes donor information for the RNC, was "overbroad" and "seeks sensitive and proprietary data."

"The RNC has sued to stop the January 6th Committee from unlawfully seizing confidential information about the internal activities of the Republican Party and millions of its supporters which is completely unrelated to the attack on the Capitol," the RNC said in a statement.

The Jan. 6 committee has been investigating the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol by mobs of former President Donald Trump's supporters for more than seven months.

In a statement, the committee said the RNC and the Trump campaign had solicited donations after the 2020 election "by pushing false claims that the election was tainted by widespread fraud."

The committee said the claims about a stolen election motivated rioters who stormed the Capitol.

The subpoena "has absolutely nothing to do with getting the private information of voters or donors," the committee said.

Salesforce did not immediately respond to request for comment outside office hours.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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