On Thursday's edition of CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) elaborated on what happens next now that the January 6 committee has issued subpoenas against four prominent Trump allies.
"These are four important witnesses and they're all very close to the former president and some were in direct communication with him on January 5th, on January 6th, and they are reportedly in communication about how to overturn their results of the election," said Schiff. "Mark Meadows, for example, involved with the Justice Department trying to get the Justice Department to put pressure on Georgia, to decertify the results of the election."
"What does it tell us, though, about the direction of the inquiry, and how Trump-centered is your focus?" asked Chris Cuomo.
"Well, I think it tells you this," said Schiff. "No one is off the table. We'll determine what went wrong in the lead-up to January 6th and we're going to find out who was involved and who was knowledgeable and what roles they played in the planning, what expectation they had of violence, and what the former president was doing. Among the biggest unknowns is what was going on within the White House on January 5th and 6th at that critical time when our democracy was being threatened with a violent insurrection? So we're not wasting time ... we've made a lot of strides in requiring documents that we need for the investigation."
"Do you anticipate one or more of these men saying, I can't testify, I have immunity?" asked Cuomo.
"If past is prologue, we can certainly anticipate that some may seek to thwart our investigation, and certainly the former president has been talking along those lines, and if you look at all of the obstruction and all of the stonewalling of the subpoenas by some of these same people in the prior administration ... we experienced that kind of stonewalling before," said Schiff. "But unlike the last four years, these witnesses are not going to be able to count on the former president to protect them if they essentially thwart the law, and I would hope that we can move expeditiously to enforce the subpoenas. If that's necessary, I hope it won't be, but if it is, but also that the Justice Department would be open to considering potential criminal contempt charges against anyone who ignores the law."
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