Jan 6 Capitol Riot Committee will not let Trump flip testimony right into a “circus,” says Cheney

Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, during a hearing of the Special Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S., on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The House special committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots in the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed former President Donald Trump Friday, and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Trump will not be able to to turn his testimony into a “circus”.

“The committee is treating this matter with great seriousness,” she told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “It can last for several days, and it is being carried out with a rigor, discipline and seriousness that it deserves.”

The committee unanimously approved the subpoena and is requesting relevant records and Trump’s testimony under oath next month.

“We recognize that subpoenaing a former president is a significant and historic act,” the panel chairmen wrote to Trump in a letter on Friday. The committee’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney cited what they called Trump’s central role in a deliberate, “multiple effort” to reverse his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The subpoena said Trump would be ousted on November 14 after the midterm elections. It is unclear whether he will comply.

Former White House aide Stephen Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison on Friday for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the same committee. He remains at large pending an appeal.

Cheney said the committee has made clear what Trump’s obligations are and plans to act accordingly.

“This won’t be his first debate against Joe Biden and the circus and the food fight that became it,” she said. “This is far too serious a set of problems.”