The former US president had previously sent an angry letter to the January 6 committee, calling its investigation a “charade and witch hunt”
FILE PHOTO: Nancy Pelosi speaks at her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 30, 2022 © AP / Mariam Zuhaib
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assumed on Sunday that former president Donald Trump lacked the guts to answer a subpoena and testify before the Democrat-led committee investigating the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t think he’s man enough to show up. I don’t think his lawyers will want him to show up because he has to testify under oath,” Pelosi told MSNBC. “We’ll see if he’s man enough to show up.”
Staffed by seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, the committee has spent more than a year looking into the January 6 events. Over several high-profile televised hearings, the committee attempted to prove that Trump was responsible for the riot, which briefly disrupted Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory the previous November.
Nancy Pelosi: Trump isn’t “man enough” to testify in front of the Jan 6 Committee. pic.twitter.com/BoPAsQak76
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 23, 2022
The committee issued a subpoena last week, calling on Trump to testify before November 14. While Trump has not ruled out appearing before the committee, he sent a letter to its chairman, Mississippi Representative Bernie Thompson, a week prior, ridiculing the panel’s investigation as a “charade and witch hunt.”
Calling the committee’s members “highly partisan political hacks and thugs,” Trump defended the January 6 protesters as “hard-working American patriots,” and condemned the Democrats for not investigating his claims of election fraud. Trump’s letter included a 12-page appendix detailing voting irregularities in five swing states.
Only one former president – Harry Truman – has ever been subpoenaed by Congress. Truman refused the 1953 summons, arguing that to answer it would be to set a dangerous precedent.
Ultimately, the committee may recommend that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump. Without laying out any specific offenses that Trump may have committed, Representative Liz Cheney told NBC News on Sunday that there were “a number of different criminal offenses that are likely at issue here.”
