A U.S. House committee has a compelling reason to subpoena Robin Vos because the Assembly speaker has intimate knowledge of former President Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine the 2020 election results, according to a new court filing.
Lawyers for the House committee reviewing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol Tuesday urged a federal judge in Milwaukee to dismiss Vos’ motion to quash the subpoena he was issued last month.
Among other things, Vos has argued a previously disclosed July conversation with Trump is outside the committee’s purview and that the Rochester Republican has legislative immunity from the committee’s subpoena.
But in Tuesday’s filing, House attorneys countered the committee’s charge isn’t just about what happened leading up to the attack on the Capitol, but the efforts to undermine the peaceful transfer of power in its aftermath.
The committee has gathered information suggesting Vos “has, on multiple occasions, engaged directly with President Trump regarding Trump’s attempts to alter the results of the 2020 Presidential election in Wisconsin,” according to the filing.
“Indeed, the details of Speaker Vos’s various conversations with former President Trump about the 2020 election — and the reasons why Mr. Trump believes that an election could be reversed by a state legislature more than a year afterwards — are highly relevant to the work of the Select Committee,” the brief argues. “They will assist in understanding both the scope of the efforts to undermine the democratic process and the correlative need for corrective legislation.”
According to the filing, the House committee’s staff first reached out to Vos’ office Sept. 6 to gauge if he was willing to speak with the committee. Committee staff then started a series of conversations with Vos’ personal counsel Sept. 16 on the request for an interview and its potential scope. When those negotiations failed to produce a voluntary agreement, the subpoena was issued Sept. 23. Vos has said the subpoena was served the following day, a Saturday, seeking a Monday deposition.
The federal judge in Milwaukee handling the case has set oral arguments for Oct. 24.
Read the motion:
https://www.wispolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/221012Dismiss.pdf
