The investigation into the January 6 riots at the Capitol appears to zero in on more members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle. This week, a recent lawsuit revealed that Trump’s spokesman has cooperated with the panel probing the riots.
One of Trump’s current spokesmen, Taylor Budowich, has revealed in a court filing that he has cooperated with the House committee probing the Capitol insurrection. Budowich said that he has turned over 1,700 pages of relevant documents to the committee and has appeared to testify for four hours before the committee. Budowich is filing a lawsuit to block the committee from accessing his financial records from JP Morgan Chase & Co.
During the recent deposition, Budowich was grilled on the financing and planning of the speech by Trump to his crowd of supporters near the White House on January 6. The insurrection took place hours after the speech. In his lawsuit, Budowich cited that his financial records are not relevant to the probe.
The Trump spokesman’s lawsuit is the latest suit by individuals that are being targeted by the House committee, seeking to prevent enforcement of subpoenas.
However, Budowich’s lawsuit is the first attempt to block a subpoena seeking financial records. Prior to Budowich, right-wing pundit Alex Jones and former Trump adviser Michael Flynn filed lawsuits against the committee, questioning its legitimacy and that the subpoenas for their testimony are unlawful.
An appeals court has rejected the claims made by Trump on December 9, ruling that the panel is within its rights to see the former president’s White House records on January 6. Trump has since sought to appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, the panel is zeroing in on the actions of the former president on January 6, who was impeached for the second time following the riots. The Guardian reports that the committee is now zeroing in on the phone call Trump made to the Willard Hotel “war room” to his top allies before the riots took place.
Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said that the panel will open an inquiry on Trump’s phone call that sought to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory hours prior to the insurrection.