Trump Reacts to Pending Jan. 6 Subpoena in a 14-Page Letter - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump responded connected Friday to a promised subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 battle with a lengthy, rambling missive that attacked the panel’s work, reiterated mendacious claims of wide voting fraud and presaged a perchance bruising conflict implicit whether helium could beryllium compelled to attest astir his relation successful the riot and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

In a 14-page missive that did not code whether helium would comply with the subpoena, Mr. Trump perpetuated the aforesaid lies that had fueled the onslaught and boasted astir the size of the assemblage that had amassed to perceive him talk earlier marching to the Capitol and staging a convulsive siege.

The erstwhile president has indicated privately to aides that helium would beryllium consenting to attest to the House sheet but would similar to bash truthful live, according to a idiosyncratic adjacent to him, a imaginable that would forestall video of him from being clipped oregon edited successful a mode helium dislikes. The missive helium released connected Friday — a conspiracy theory-filled rehash of his galore grievances and mendacious assertions — underscored the risks for the committee of giving Mr. Trump an unfettered nationalist platform.

“The statesmanlike predetermination of 2020 was rigged and stolen!” the missive began successful each superior letters.

Mr. Trump dedicated leafage aft leafage to repeating that prevarication astir the 2020 election, which helium mislaid to President Biden, a information helium has repeatedly refused to acknowledge.

“You person not gone aft the radical that created the fraud, but alternatively large American patriots who questioned it, arsenic is their law right,” Mr. Trump wrote successful the screed. “These radical person had their lives ruined arsenic your committee sits backmost and basks successful the glow.”

Instead of providing what helium claimed was evidence, helium included appendices filled with assertions of wide predetermination irregularities that person been debunked, immoderate by his ain erstwhile lawyer general, William P. Barr, and different apical Justice Department officials.

“A ample percent of American citizens, including astir the full Republican Party, consciousness that the predetermination was rigged and stolen,” Mr. Trump wrote, without mentioning that his mendacious claims were the crushed the lies dispersed among the populace and person travel to define the G.O.P.

He included aerial photographs purporting to amusement tremendous throngs of radical connected the National Mall connected Jan. 6, 2021 — reminiscent of the images that the White House released aft his inauguration successful 2017 — and again complained of what helium claimed was media censorship that downplayed the size of the crowd.

The missive emerged arsenic the House committee, which had voted unanimously connected Thursday to contented a subpoena to Mr. Trump, was astatine enactment preparing the demand, which would database circumstantial documents that the erstwhile president indispensable crook implicit and a day by erstwhile helium indispensable testify. People adjacent to the committee’s enactment said the sheet was poised to contented the subpoena arsenic soon arsenic Monday.

While Mr. Trump was improbable to comply with the subpoena — helium antecedently refused to attest successful his impeachment trial — committee and unit members were discussing whether they would judge him testifying live. Those acquainted with the discussions said the committee seemed unfastened to the idea, believing the sheet could astir apt elicit immoderate important developments from Mr. Trump’s testimony.

Should Mr. Trump diminution to appear, it could pb to a precedent-setting fight. Several erstwhile presidents voluntarily testified earlier Congress, but determination is nary Supreme Court precedent that says whether Congress has the powerfulness to compel a erstwhile president to attest astir his actions successful office.

Committee members said they believed Mr. Trump should privation to comply with the subpoena.

“I privation to judge again that each American national who knows thing astir these events would travel guardant to testify, and cipher knows much astir them than Donald Trump does,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a subordinate of the committee.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the president of the committee, told reporters connected Thursday that helium hoped Mr. Trump would comply but that helium believed the sheet had compiled a broad lawsuit of the events of Jan. 6 without the erstwhile president’s testimony.

“If we get his attention, fine,” Mr. Thompson said. “If not, we’ll spell with the grounds we collected.”

Mr. Trump’s explosive absorption came the time aft a proceeding successful which the Jan. 6 sheet summed up its case against the erstwhile president, and presented singular behind-the-scenes video that showed apical legislature leaders scrambling to unafraid the Capitol during the attack.

In different information of the video released connected Friday to CNN, Speaker Nancy Pelosi tin beryllium seen talking by cellphone to Vice President Mike Pence, asking astir his well-being and advising him, “Don’t fto anybody cognize wherever you are.” The infinitesimal underscored the information Mr. Pence faced arsenic the rioters called for his execution and Mr. Trump insulted him connected Twitter.

Mr. Trump ne'er attempted to cheque connected Mr. Pence, who had been evacuated from the Capitol conscionable minutes earlier the mob flooded the country wherever helium had been. But successful a abstracted telephone telephone sometime that afternoon, Mr. Pence’s main of staff, Marc Short, reached Mark Meadows, the White House main of staff, to accidental that helium and the vice president were safe, according to a idiosyncratic briefed connected the exchange.

During the call, Mr. Short said that they believed the counting of electoral votes should resume that nighttime and Mr. Meadows agreed, the idiosyncratic said. But erstwhile Mr. Meadows asked wherever the vice president was, Mr. Short declined to supply specifics, saying lone that they were astir the Capitol.

Stephanie Lai contributed reporting.