Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell subpoenaed by House Jan. 6 committee
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued subpoenas on Tuesday to Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Boris Epshteyn, all public defenders of former President Donald Trump's voter fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election.
In the weeks leading up to President Biden's inauguration, Trump's lawyers pushed the false claim that there was widespread voter fraud, filing lawsuits in states where Trump lost in an attempt to overturn election results; all of their claims were rejected by the courts.
In a statement, the Jan. 6 committee's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said the "four individuals we've subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former president about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The committee is asking Giuliani to provide testimony and turn over records in connection with his alleged efforts to sway state legislators into overturning election results and his promotion of Trump's election fraud claims, The Associated Press reports.
Giuliani, Powell, and Ellis regularly held press conferences where they repeated false claims of election fraud, and the panel said it would also like to speak with Ellis about a memo she prepared and distributed regarding the constitutional authority then-Vice President Mike Pence would have had to reject electoral votes from states that submitted alternate slates of electors.
Epshteyn served as one of Trump's campaign strategic advisers, and was reportedly at meetings held at the Willard Hotel prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The panel also said Epshteyn spoke with Trump on Jan. 6 to discuss ways to delay the certification of election results, should Pence not hold up the process.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
US citizens are carrying passports amid ICE fearsThe Explainer ‘You do what you have to do to avoid problems,’ one person told The Guardian
-
All roads to Ukraine-Russia peace run through DonetskIN THE SPOTLIGHT Volodymyr Zelenskyy is floating a major concession on one of the thorniest issues in the complex negotiations between Ukraine and Russia
-
Why is Trump killing off clean energy?Today's Big Question The president halts offshore wind farm construction
-
Trump appears numerous times in new Epstein batchSpeed Read
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
Danes ‘outraged’ at revived Trump Greenland pushSpeed Read
-
‘Tension has been building inside Heritage for a long time’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The MAGA civil war takes center stage at the Turning Point USA conferenceIN THE SPOTLIGHT ‘Americafest 2025’ was a who’s who of right-wing heavyweights eager to settle scores and lay claim to the future of MAGA
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Is Trump deliberately redacting Epstein files to shield himself?Today’s Big Question Removal of image from publicly released documents prompts accusations of political interference by justice department
