Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 11, including Pierson, other rally organizers

The committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot released 11 new subpoenas Wednesday night, targeting the spokesperson for former President Trump’s campaign and a host of other individuals involved in planning the rally where he spoke shortly before his supporters attacked the Capitol.

The committee is seeking documents and testimony from Katrina Pierson, a spokesperson for Trump’s 2016 campaign, as well as Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

Each of the 11 individuals is identified by the committee as having been involved with the Women for America First-sponsored rally where Trump spoke on Jan. 6. 

“You assisted in organizing the rally held on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of then-President Trump and his allegation of election fraud. President Trump spoke at the January 6th rally shortly before the attack on the Capitol, urging the crowd to ‘fight much harder’ and to ‘stop the steal,’” the committee wrote in letters to each.

The subpoenas seek a range of records that include materials dealing with the planning, funding, and participation in the rally, as well as other events organized by Women for America First, including two “March for Trump” nationwide bus tours.

“According to press reports those working with you and [Women for America First] WFAF to organize the Jan. 6 rally collectively communicated with President Trump, White House officials, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and others about the rally and other events planned to coincide with the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results,” each letter states.

The letters, the second set of subpoenas issued by the committee, were sent in the span of a week from those issued to several former Trump aides, including Meadows.

The subpoena to Meadows mentioned his coordination with the group, including its head, Amy Kremer, the founder and chair of Women for America First.

Wednesday’s letters, like those from the week prior, highlight the committee’s interest in what Trump was doing on Jan. 6.

While subpoenas to his aides more broadly sought information from those who spent substantial time with the then-president that day, the newest letters indicate a committee zeroing in on how the rally was tied to the attack that followed.

“On the same day that WFAF submitted the original permit application for the Jan. 6 rally on behalf of WFAF, President Trump tweeted, ‘Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild,’” the subpoenas note.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a Jan. 6 panel member who led the Democrats’ prosecution during Trump’s impeachment trial after the attack, said the committee is trying to “reconstruct” how pro-Trump rallies morphed into a violent and deadly insurrection. 

“A lot of the focus related to this next round of subpoenas revolves around the organizing of the Save America rally on Jan. 6 and the pro-MAGA rally on Jan. 5,” Raskin told reporters on the Capitol steps. 

“So we’re trying to reconstruct exactly the organizational contours of the rally that became a riot, who paid for it, who organized it, who coordinated it, and what were the relationships between the official rally organizers and the insurrectionist groups that committed the first round of violent acts on that day.”

Women for America First did not immediately respond to request for comment from The Hill.

It was at the rally organized by Women for America First that Trump told his loyalists to “fight like hell” and march on the Capitol as lawmakers were moving to certify the 2020 Election results.

Its 11 subpoenaed members are asked to submit documents by Oct. 13 and appear for a deposition in either late October or November.

In addition to Meadows, the committee last week also sent subpoenas to strategist Stephen Bannon, as well as Dan Scavino, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications, and Kashyap Patel, the chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christhoper Miller and a former House and White House staffer.

—Scott Wong contributed. Updated at 7:15 p.m.