Jan. 6 panel threatens subpoena after GOP lawmaker rebuffs request for interview

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said Tuesday he will decline to appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol – leaving the panel threatening him with a subpoena if he won’t voluntarily provide information. 

The committee was seeking to speak with Perry about the role he played in former President Trump’s pressure campaign at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including forwarding alleged claims of widespread voter fraud.

Perry also introduced the president to Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level DOJ employee whom Trump once weighed installing as attorney general in order to better enable him to advance voter fraud investigations to stall certification of the election results.

“I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives,” Perry tweeted Tuesday, referring to the panel.

“I decline this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical Left who desperately seek distraction from their abject failures of crushing inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, and the horrendous crisis they created and refuse to address at our southern border,” he added.

But the committee on Tuesday suggested it would move ahead with a subpoena for Perry – an extraordinary step that would be the first-ever subpoena from a congressional committee for testimony from a sitting lawmaker.

In a statement, a committee spokesperson noted that courts have shot down efforts by Trump to block the panel from receiving his records, rejecting arguments that the committee does not serve a legitimate legislative purpose.

“Representative Perry has information directly relevant to our investigation. While he says that he respects the Constitution and Rule of Law, he fails to note that multiple federal courts, acting pursuant to Article 3 of our Constitution, have already rejected the former President’s claims that the committee lacks an appropriate legislative purpose,” a spokesman for the committee said in a statement.

“The Select Committee prefers to gather relevant evidence from members cooperatively, but if members with directly relevant information decline to cooperate and instead endeavor to cover up, the Select Committee will consider seeking such information using other tools.”

Perry, the incoming chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is among a long list of conservatives who have questioned the validity of the Jan. 6 probe. Trump himself earlier Tuesday referred to the panel as “the Unselect Committee of highly partisan political hacks.”

Though stopping short of the subpoena tactic that the committee has used for a number of other high-level witnesses, the outreach to Perry was remarkable in that it was the first time the congressional panel directly engaged with a sitting U.S. lawmaker. 

The Monday letter from the committee asked for Perry’s “voluntary cooperation” and that he turn over all his communications with Trump, the Trump legal team and anything related to Jan. 6 or its planning.

In addition to introducing Trump to Clark, Perry also contacted top DOJ officials, including sending “a series of documents summarizing numerous Pennsylvania election fraud claims” on Dec. 27.

The lawmaker also led efforts to contest certification of Pennsylvania’s election results shortly after midnight once the Capitol was reopened following the attack.

This story was updated at 3:05 p.m.