WASHINGTON — The special committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued three more subpoenas Thursday, turning its focus to key org
WASHINGTON — The special committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued three more subpoenas Thursday, turning its focus to key organizers of the “Stop the Steal” rally that led into the mob violence.
The subpoenas seek deposition testimony from Ali Abdul Akbar, also known as Ali Alexander, and Nathan Martin, who were involved in organizing the “Stop the Steal” rallies that before the riot spread the lie that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The committee also issued a subpoena for Stop the Steal L.L.C., an organization affiliated with the event.
“The rally on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy,” Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “Over the course of that day, demonstrations escalated to violence and protesters became rioters.”
In the weeks before the attack, Mr. Alexander made repeated reference during “Stop the Steal” events to the possible use of violence to achieve the organization’s goals, and he claimed to have been in communication with the White House and members of Congress regarding events planned to undermine the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results, the committee said.
Mr. Alexander, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist, has claimed that he, along with Representatives Mo Brooks of Alabama, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Andy Biggs of Arizona, all Republicans, set the events of Jan. 6 in motion.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Mr. Alexander said in a since-deleted video posted online, “so that who we couldn’t rally, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”
Additionally, Mr. Alexander spoke at a rally on Jan. 5 held by the Eighty Percent Coalition at Freedom Plaza in Washington and led the crowd in a chant of “victory, or death,” the committee said.
The committee has now issued 18 subpoenas and it is clear lawmakers are focusing on the funding, planning and organization of the rally that quickly led to violence as rioters stormed the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to formalize President Biden’s election. They chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” threatened to shoot Speaker Nancy Pelosi and forced lawmakers to evacuate the building. About 140 police officers were injured, and several people died in connection with the riot.
The committee said it was trying to get to the bottom of the organizing of the Jan. 6 event, given the conflicting information its investigators have received.
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