The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas Tuesday to four allies of former President Donald Trump "who publicly promoted unsupported claims about the 2020 election and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of election results," including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

What You Need To Know

  • The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas Tuesday to four allies of former President Donald Trump

  • The panel is demanding documents and testimony from former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn

  • On Jan. 6, Giuliani spoke to a crowd of Trump supporters at a rally directly before the insurrection, during which he called for a “trial by combat"

  • The panel said Giuliani "actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results"

The panel is demanding documents and testimony from Giuliani, who served as an attorney to Trump, as well as other members of the former president's legal team: Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn.

"The four individuals we’ve subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes," Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the panel's chairman, wrote in a statement.

On Jan. 6, Giuliani spoke to a crowd of Trump supporters at a rally directly before the deadly insurrection, during which he called for a “trial by combat.”

Giuliani, the panel said, "actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results." The former NYC mayor "was reportedly in contact with then-President Trump and various Members of Congress regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the results of the 2020 election," the panel noted.

Ellis reportedly drafted and circulated "two memos purporting to analyze the constitutional authority for the Vice President to reject or delay counting electoral votes from states that had submitted alternate slates of electors."

Powell repeatedly espoused a number of widely debunked, false claims of election fraud during media appearances and in litigation, according to the panel.

Epshteyn "reportedly attended meetings at the Willard Hotel in the days leading up to January 6th and had a call with former President Trump on the morning of January 6th to discuss options to delay the certification of election results in the event of Vice President Pence’s unwillingness to deny or delay the certification," the panel said.

Last week, the committee issued subpoenas targeting Twitter, Meta, Reddit and YouTube after lawmakers said the companies’ initial responses were inadequate. 

Rep. Thompson demanded records from the companies relating to their role in allegedly spreading misinformation about the 2020 election and promoting domestic violent extremism on their platforms in the lead-up to the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. 

“Two key questions for the Select Committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps — if any — social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds for radicalizing people to violence,” Thompson, D-Miss., said in a letter.

Two days prior, the committee had issued subpoenas to Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, strategists who advised Donald Trump Jr., and Ross Worthington, a former White House official who the committee says helped draft the speech Trump gave at the rally directly preceding last year’s attack. 

“We have reason to believe the individuals we’ve subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to join the more than 340 individuals who have spoken with the Select Committee as we push ahead to investigate this attack on our democracy and ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” Thompson said in another letter.

Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the Jan. 6 congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.