The 6 January House Select Committee has issued a subpoena for a security guard of Alex Jones, founder of the conservative web-streaming website InfoWars.
In Tuesday’s court filing, the radio show host revealed that Timothy Enlow, a security official employed by Jones’ firm Free Speech Systems LLC, was notified on 9 February that the select committee had subpoenaed his phone records.
Enlow accompanied Jones in Washington on 6 January 2021, when the InfoWars website owner marched from Ellipse Park, where Trump held his Stop the Steal rally, to the Capitol.
The radio show host’s attorney Norm Pattis claimed that the subpoena issued to Enlow “was merely a back door to obtain Jones’ communications in the face of pending litigation seeking to protect those communications from the defendants’ eyes”.
The InfoWars founder appeared before the 6 January Select Committee under subpoena in January 2022, pleading to invoke the Fifth Amendment (which protects individuals from self-incrimination) to the bulk of the questions.
The Tuesday developments come after the 6 January panel subpoenaed scores of Trump’s close allies and advisers who were allegedly involved in the Capitol riot events. This followed the former US president losing a protracted legal battle with the House select committee, during which he tried to prevent the unsealing of White House documents that were turned over to the National Archives at the end of his administration’s tenure.
Trump has repeatedly criticised the committee, dubbing it just another "witch hunt" orchestrated to harm him. The House Select Committee, which was created with the declared goal of investigating the cause of the Capitol riot, believes that the subpoenaed documents contain important evidence proving that Trump tried to stage an insurrection, a claim that he strongly rejects.
Capitol Riot
On 6 January 2021, a mob, including scores of Trump supporters, stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the November 2020 presidential election.
Five people died and dozens more were injured during the riots, which were preceded by Trump holding the “Stop the Steal” rally earlier on 6 January 2021 outside the White House.
Using his now-suspended Twitter account, the 45th president later urged his supporters "to stay peaceful" and "go home". He also recorded a video address on 7 January 2021 condemning the Capitol violence. Trump was impeached for an unprecedented second time over accusations of "incitement to insurrection", but was then acquitted in the Senate.