The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol has been gathering information on the planning process behind the events on that day, subpoenaing dozens of phone records from people connected to the “Stop the Steal” rally that immediately preceded the riot.
In a lawsuit filed in a District of Columbia federal court on Monday, Jones argued that the court’s subpoena of phone records from AT&T violates his First Amendment rights as a journalist and that the committee itself is improperly composed according to House regulations.
Jones says that he has offered to hand over documents and answer questions in writing, rather than in an interview, but that the committee declined. He said that if he appears before the committee on January 10 as requested, he should be expected to invoke his First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights when refusing to answer their questions.
According to the committee, Jones helped organize the “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House, including reportedly soliciting a massive donation that provided 80% of the event’s funding.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones walks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020
© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana
"Mr. Jones has stated that he was told by the White House that he was to lead a march from the January 6th Ellipse rally to the Capitol, where President Trump would meet the group and speak," the committee said in a November 22 release announcing the subpoena. "Mr. Jones has repeatedly promoted unsupported allegations of election fraud, including encouraging individuals to attend the Ellipse rally on January 6th and implying he had knowledge about the plans of the former President with respect to the rally."
On Tuesday, Flynn reportedly filed a lawsuit of his own against the committee over subpoenas for his phone records, according to CNN.
Flynn, a longtime senior US military intelligence officer, was briefly a member of the Trump administration before resigning just three weeks into Trump’s presidency. His resignation followed revelations he had concealed the nature of his communication with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador in Washington, DC. He later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about that conversation, but was pardoned by Trump in November 2020.
In July 2020, Flynn posted a video replete with references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that Trump is locked in a secret battle with a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile Democrats who run the globe. The ideology was a major motivating factor for many of the thousands of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, believing it was the beginning of a prophesied “Storm” that would sweep away Trump’s enemies.
Later, in the run-up to the riot, Flynn suggested Trump suspend the US Constitution and impose martial law, having the US military facilitate a new election after Trump claimed the November 3, 2020, vote had been fraudulent, thanks to Democratic scheming. Trump lost the election to now-US President Joe Biden.
The attack on the Capitol came while Congress was convened in a joint session to certify the election results. While the rioters gained entry to the national legislature and sent lawmakers running for safety, they failed at their ultimate goal of overturning the results, and police and National Guardsmen soon cleared them from the building.
Five people died in the violent upheaval, including a US Capitol Police officer and a female rioter who was shot by a USCP officer outside the House chamber as she attempted to break through a door.
In the aftermath, Washington, DC, was garrisoned by tens of thousands of troops, who remained for months amid reported threats of further violence that failed to materialize. Trump was impeached on charges of inciting the insurrection, but acquitted by a minority of senators in a trial after he left office.