Members of the Oath Keepers provide security to Roger Stone at a rally the night before groups attacked the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, U.S., January 5, 2021.
Jim Urquhart | Reuters
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued subpoenas to a spokesman for former President Donald Trump, Republican political operative Roger Stone and conspiracy monger Alex Jones, as well as two other people allegedly connected to that day’s events
Taylor Budowich, the Trump spokesman, reportedly helped advertise the rally outside of the White House where the then-president spoke right before the riot, in which hundreds of his supporters broke into the Capitol.
Stone originally had been slated to speak at that event, and the Infowars host Jones reportedly was involved in organizing the rally, the committee said in a press release Monday evening.
The other people newly issued subpoenas by the House panel are Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence, a couple who reportedly organized multiple post-election rallies that pushed the false narrative that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.
The House panel says the five new subpoena recipients who have been asked for testimony and documents are believed to have knowledge of the plans and funding for the rallies in Washington on Jan. 6 that preceded the storming of the Capitol.
“We believe the witnesses we subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to cooperate fully with our effort to get answers for the American people about the violence of January 6th,” select committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in the press release.
In a statement posted to his website, Stone said he has not yet been served the subpoena and has not seen the details of what the committee wants him to provide to the probe.
“I have said time and time again that I had no advance knowledge of the events that took place at the Capitol on that day,” Stone’s statement said. “After the subpoena is served and after my counsel reviews the requests, I will make the determination of how I will proceed.”
Responding to a request for comment, Stone, a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster,” told CNBC: “Sorry I only respond to inquiries from legitimate news reporters. You don’t qualify.”
Norman Pattis, an attorney for Jones, told NBC News in a statement that “the First Amendment guarantees the right of assembly and the right to petition for redress of grievances. Congress’s attempt to chill ordinary Americans in the exercise of these rights is terrifying. We will be in touch with Committee staff to determine what our next steps will be.”
Alex Jones, the founder of right-wing media group Infowars, addresses a crowd of pro-Trump protesters after they storm the grounds of the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Jon Cherry | Getty Images
The bipartisan panel is tasked with investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding the Capitol invasion, when Trump’s supporters temporarily blocked Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The committee has sought the cooperation of dozens of witnesses and has subpoenaed a growing list of Trump’s current and former allies and associates.
The panel referred Steve Bannon, Trump’s former senior White House advisor, for contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with its subpoena to him.
Bannon’s attorney based his noncompliance on Trump’s claims of executive privilege over the information requested by the panel. The full House later voted to hold Bannon in contempt, and a federal grand jury on Nov. 12 indicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.
Bannon has pleaded not guilty. Trump sued to block the committee from obtaining reams of records from when Trump was president.
The committee has also subpoenaed Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and his former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, among many others. The panel has threatened to advance criminal contempt proceedings for Meadows, who has refused to comply with his subpoena.
Jones last week was held liable in a civil lawsuit for defamation, filed by family members of victims in the Sandy Hook school massacre. Jones had claimed the event was a “hoax,”
Stone was pardoned by Trump in December for his conviction for lying to Congress.
He had reportedly said he was planning to “lead a march to the Capitol” from the rally for Trump, according to the House committee.
