Attorneys for former President Donald Trump requested permission to subpoena records related to seven individuals and entities in the case against the Republican presidential candidate in the District of Columbia.
President Trump was charged with four felony counts for his actions in challenging the 2020 election results, and the records that he’s seeking are the ones missing from the archives of the January 6 Select Committee.
“By these subpoenas, President Trump seeks to retrieve certain missing records and uncover information about their disposition,” the Oct. 11 filing reads.
The seven individuals are the archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration, the clerk of the House of Representatives, the Committee on House Administration (the successor of the January 6 Select Committee), Richard Sauber, Jonathan Meyer, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).
Mr. Sauber is an attorney who has served as special counsel to President Joe Biden since 2022. Mr. Meyer was confirmed as general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security in October 2021.
President Trump is being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed in November 2022 to investigate matters related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach events. The government has already brought forth more than 1,100 cases against those who were present at the Capitol that day.
President Trump has pleaded not guilty to all four counts and maintains that his prosecution is politically motivated, pointing out that Mr. Smith was appointed just days after the former president announced that he would be seeking office again in 2024.
Committee Records
According to a letter from Mr. Loudermilk, the records from the January 6 Select Committee weren’t all transferred to be archived at the Committee on House Administration in accordance with the rules.The representative sits on the Committee on House Administration and wrote in August that the committee had received only 2.5 terabytes of data out of the 4 terabytes that the January 6 Select Committee stated that it retained in its investigations.
These missing records include video recordings and transcriptions of interviews and depositions.
In July, Mr. Thompson, former chair of the January 6 Select Committee, had confirmed in a letter that not all of the records had been archived.
“From the descriptions in the letters, these materials include important intelligence and other law enforcement information, records identifying witnesses, and other information the Select Committee deemed sensitive pursuant to agreements with the White House and DHS [Department of Homeland Security],” the filing reads.
Mr. Thompson explained that the records weren’t available for the committee to archive because they had been loaned to the White House special counsel and the DHS.
Subpoenas
President Trump’s legal team stated that it may call several of these individuals as trial witnesses.“Needless to say, there is significant overlap between the Select Committee’s investigation and this case,” they wrote. “Indeed, the letters from the Select Committee transferring these records to the White House and DHS indicate how important the Select Committee considered these witnesses and records.”
Mr. Meyer was sent a letter from the committee on Dec. 30, 2022, thanking him for his department’s cooperation in the investigation and alerting him that the committee was to be dissolved. Attached were transcripts made available for him to review before they were to be archived so that Congress could adhere to the “continuing confidentiality of operational details and private information.”
Mr. Sauber was sent a similar letter that day, with details redacted in the exhibit submitted to the court. He was asked to review transcripts and records before they were to be handed over to the archives.
President Trump’s attorneys also want answers as to whether the missing records were “lost, destroyed, or altered” as well.
“The defense is entitled to know whether evidence has been lost,” they wrote.
“The Requested Subpoenas are narrowly tailored to achieve these legitimate ends, which are fundamental to ensuring President Trump’s right to a fair trial under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.”
The subpoenas targeting the clerk and archivist are intended to seek out records that “may be maintained by more than one party,” the attorneys said.
They also argued that the government’s “failure to preserve evidence” could potentially emerge as a “due process violation” in the case if it turns out that evidence that could clear President Trump was made inaccessible to him.
