January 6 select committee requests records of Trump White House communications

The House select committee tasked with investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol has requested records from eight executive branch agencies on Tuesday, demanding a trove of documents including communications from the Trump White House related to the rioting.

The committee’s requests shed light on the broad scope of its investigation. Chairman Bennie G. Thompson sent letters to the National Archives and Records Administration and seven other agencies, asking for information on the gathering and dissemination of intelligence before the attack, security preparations around the Capitol, how various agencies responded, the planning of events in Washington that day and how the attack relates to attempts to overturn the results of the election.

“Our Constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned and recommend laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations necessary to protect our republic in the future,” wrote Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi. 

The committee is seeking “communications within and among the White House and executive branch agencies” before, on and after January 6. It also wants records related to the Trump White House’s attempts to place political loyalists in government positions following the 2020 election.

The requests suggest that the panel will also look into whether former President Trump or his administration considered invoking the Insurrection Act, martial law or the 25th Amendment. 

The committee sent requests to the National Archives, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Thompson set a deadline of September 9 for producing the information. If the agencies don’t comply with the requests, the committee could move to issue subpoenas for the records.

In addition to the executive branch requests, Thompson said earlier this week that the committee also plans to request hundreds of phone records from telecommunications companies, including from members of Congress.