It is a matter of common sense that if one wants to get the full story about what happened on January 6th and why, and the House Investigative Committee certainly does, they would need to speak to Donald Trump. Under oath.

Easier said than done.

If there is one thing we know about Donald Trump, it is that he is not a fan of subpoenas. Not only is Trump very comfortable saying, “No” to appearing when subpoenaed by Congress, he is also very comfortable telling other people to say no as well. For the most part, Trump got away with it as president.

He is no longer president. Additionally, it will be very hard for him to argue that these discussions were part of the policy and discussions among president and staff that should be privileged. Speaking of staff and discussions, the committee will also be subpoenaing staff and congressional members that discussed the matter with Trump. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chairman Bennie Thompson is very serious about this:

“Anybody who had a conversation with the White House and officials in the White House while the invasion of the Capitol was going on is directly in the investigative sights of the committee,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) in an interview ahead of the panel’s first public hearing on Tuesday.

He said that could include subpoenas to compel testimony, as well as records related to phone calls and other communications. Pressed on whether the Democratic-led committee would subpoena Mr. Trump, Mr. Thompson said nobody was off limits.

Phone calls. Trump is very wily about not having direct conversations with people about difficult matters. But phone calls in and out of the White House, even if not to Trump’s direct number, will pose a problem.

We can be sure that Trump will litigate appearing in front of Congress to the Supreme Court and back, and back again. But the threat of having to speak, while others are called to speak, is something.

The other thing that is something? The refusal to testify. It doesn’t look good. Perhaps that is, in part, why the Congress didn’t want a 50-50 bipartisan committee, it would look even worse if Trump refused to testify. Given this set-up, Trump can try to say it is all political. Still, why not just go and prove it’s political by answering every question?

We think we know why.

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Peace, y’all
jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak