The new special counsel tasked with apportioning blame for the 2021 Capitol occupation is issuing more subpoenas to those who worked with former president Donald Trump, sources claim.
Anonymous sources told US media that unnamed individuals, allegedly close to Trump, had been called to answer questions by a grand jury — a body convened to decide if criminal charges are warranted.
Some had already been subpoenaed, but had been called back for a second bout of questions that one nameless source claimed would be "far more intense than round one."
The sources said Special Counsel Jack Smith wanted to question them about "fundraising efforts and talking points" — the daily business of Washington DC — in the period before the January 6, 2021, occupation of the US Capitol.
Smith has already attempted to scrutinise the Save America political action committee (PAC), but is now going after the established Turning Point USA group that organises conventions for young conservatives.
Smith has also asked for information on who is paying for the witnesses' legal representation, after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump's White House chief of staff Mark meadows, told the House January 6 committee that her previous attorney was hired by a fund 'linked to' the former president.
Two years on from the unrest during a protest against Congress declaring Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, hundreds of those involved have been charged and several convicted.
But the Congressional select committee set up to report on the incident has yet to level any concrete criminal charges against Trump that would prevent him challenging Biden for the presidency in 2024.
With Republicans now holding a narrow majority in the House of Representatives following last November's mid-terms, the window of opportunity for further congressional action against the 45th president may have closed.