Former US President Donald Trump has lashed out against the January 6 committee’s vote to subpoena him. On his social media platform Truth Social, the former president said, “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?”
He further added, “Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly – A laughing stock all over the World?”
This is not the first time that the former committee has attacked the January 6 committee. He had earlier referred to the members of said body as “Unselect Committee of Political Thugs and Hacks”, further adding that members of said committee were “evil, sinister and unpatriotic.”
Trump, 76, had asked many of his aides to not testify to the committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment. By the end of Day 9 of its hearings, the January 6 committee put forward the view that Trump had wilfully lied about the results of the 2020 elections and had encouraged an armed and dangerous mob to riot.’
Also Read| January 6 committee unanimously votes to subpoena Donald Trump
Trump is not the first US President to have been subpoenaed by a congressional committee. Earlier, on April 11, 1974, a congressional committee had subpoenaed former President Richard Nixon in an impeachment hearing. It was the first time that a sitting US President had received such a subpoena.
However, the precedence to subpoena a former President goes even further back. Presidents John Quincy Adams and John Tyler were subpoenaed by a congressional committee. Former President Harry Truman was also asked to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) shortly after his presidency ended. However, Truman refused to honour the subpoena and said that he too had immunity just a sitting president.
