Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Nov 03, 2025

Trump summoned to testify to U.S. Jan 6 riot panel, provide documents

Trump summoned to testify to U.S. Jan 6 riot panel, provide documents

Former President Donald Trump was ordered on Friday to testify under oath and provide documents to the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

The committee said it had sent a subpoena to Trump requiring documents to be submitted to the panel by Nov. 4 and for him to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about Nov. 14.

Deposition testimony often refers to closed-door, videotaped questioning of a witness on the record. Such testimony could be made public and become part of a final report by the special panel.

"As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power," the committee wrote in a letter to Trump on Friday.

The committee is seeking a wide range of documents from Trump that would detail communications he may have had over a period of several months leading up to the Jan. 6 riot and beyond with lawmakers, Oath Keepers and Proud Boys members, as well as associates and former aides, including Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Rudy Giuliani.

Additional documents, text messages and other communications being sought relate to information detailing possible travel of people to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, communications relating to efforts to encourage state legislatures or lawmakers to take actions that would have delayed Congress' certification of the presidential election or changes in states that would have certified an alternate slate of "electors" that would support naming Trump as the winner of the 2020 election.

Trump, who regularly refers to the panel as the "unselect committee," has accused it of waging unfair political attacks on him while refusing to investigate his charges of widespread election fraud.

He is not likely to cooperate with the subpoena and could simply try to run out the clock on a committee whose mandate will likely end early next year if Republicans win a majority in the House in November's midterm elections.

Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump delivered a fiery speech at a rally near the White House featuring false claims that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by Democrat Joe Biden was the result of fraud.

The assault saw rioters smash through glass and battle police. Five people including a police officer died during or shortly after the riot, more than 140 police officers were injured, the Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage and Pence, members of Congress and staff were sent running for their lives.

The committee announcement came hours after Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Trump, was sentenced to four months in federal prison for refusing to cooperate with the panel's investigation. He is free, however, pending his appeal.

PRIOR PRESIDENTIAL TESTIMONY


The committee made clear that congressional testimony by a former or sitting president was not unprecedented. The letter listed seven former presidents -- most recently Gerald Ford -- having testified after leaving office. "Even sitting presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Gerald Ford" also appeared while still in the White House, it said.

"In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself," Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote Trump.

Committee members have not said how they will proceed if Trump disregards his subpoena.

Federal law says that failure to comply with a congressional subpoena is a misdemeanor, punishable by one to 12 months imprisonment. If the select committee's subpoena is ignored, the committee would vote to refer the issue to the full House. The House then would vote on whether to make a referral to the Department of Justice, which has the authority to decide whether to bring charges.

The rioters were attempting to stop Congress' formal certification of Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.

The House Jan. 6 select committee has held a series of hearings making its case - via documents, live witness testimony and recorded testimony from interviews conducted behind closed doors - that Trump was largely responsible for the deadly assault on the Capitol.

They argued that the Republican planned in advance to deny his election defeat, failed for hours to call off the thousands of his supporters who stormed the Capitol and followed through with his false claims that the election was stolen even as close advisers told him he had lost.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Deal Between Saudi Arabia and Israel ‘Virtually Impossible’ This Year, Kingdom Insider Says
Saudi Crown Prince to Visit Washington While Israel Recognition Remains Off-Table
Saudi Arabia Poised to Channel Billions into Syria’s Reconstruction as U.S. Sanctions Linger
Smotrich’s ‘Camels’ Remark Tests Saudi–Israel Normalisation Efforts
Saudi Arabia and Qatar Gain Structural Edge in Asian World Cup Qualification
Israeli Energy Minister Delays $35 Billion Gas Export Agreement with Egypt
Fincantieri and Saudi Arabia Agree to Build Advanced Maritime Ecosystem in Kingdom
Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN Accelerates AI Ambitions Through Major Partnerships and Infrastructure Push
IOC and Saudi Arabia End Ambitious 12-Year Esports Games Partnership
CSL Seqirus Signs Saudi Arabia Pact to Provide Cell-Based Flu Vaccines and Build Local Production
Qualcomm and Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN Team Up to Deploy 200 MW AI Infrastructure
Saudi Arabia’s Economy Expands Five Percent in Third Quarter Amid Oil Output Surge
China’s Vice President Han Zheng Meets Saudi Crown Prince as Trade Concerns Loom
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
×