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In
doing so Trump defied a subpoena issued by the panel in October,
Chair Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, and co-Chair Liz Cheney, a
Republican, said in a joint statement.
"The truth is that Donald Trump, like several of his closest
allies, is hiding from the Select Committee’s investigation and
refusing to do what more than a thousand other witnesses have
done," Thompson and Cheney said.
The panel did not say what next steps they might pursue against
Trump. Thompson told the New York Times in an interview that he
would not rule out seeking contempt of Congress charges against
the former president.
"That could be an option. And we’ll have to wait and see,”
Thomson told the Times. “The first thing we’ll do is see how we
address the lawsuit. At some point after that, we’ll decide the
path forward.”
Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking to avoid having to
testify or provide any documentation to the Jan. 6 committee.
The congressional committee has held a series of hearings as it
seeks to make its case to the public that Trump provoked his
supporters into storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while
lawmakers met to formally declare his loss to Democrat Joe
Biden.
The subpoena ordered Trump to submit documents to the panel by
Nov. 4 and for him to appear for deposition testimony beginning
on or about Nov. 14.
On Nov. 4, it said it had agreed to give Trump an extension
before producing the documents but the Nov. 14 deadline remained
in place.
Republicans are expected to dissolve the panel if they win
control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the mid-term
elections.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
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