At least five former Trump White House staffers are talking to the House January 6 committee
By Kaitlan Collins, CNN
At least five former Trump administration staffers have voluntarily spoken with the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, CNN has learned.
Those discussions come as lawyers working for the committee have also reached out to a range of other Trump aides to inquire whether they would be interested in speaking with the committee voluntarily, without the threat of a subpoena.
The five former staffers who have had conversations with the committee have done so with either members or their staff. Some believe they have information worth sharing, while others are hoping to avoid being legally compelled to talk to the committee.
“I’ve got good reason to believe a number of them are horrified and scandalized by what took place on January 6th and they want to do their legal duty and their civic duty by coming forward to explain exactly what happened,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the committee, said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Tuesday. “We’re going to continue to encourage everybody who has relevant information to come and talk.”
The engagement could provide insight for the committee that’s seeking to learn more about the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters in the lead up to the riot.
According to five former Trump aides, counsel for the committee has emailed or texted them directly to ask whether they are interested in coming in to talk to the congressional investigators, often looking for context on what happened inside the West Wing before the insurrection on January 6.
While several people have voluntarily sat down with the committee, others have declined the committee’s request or not responded at all. The outreach has ranged from junior-level staffers to more seasoned officials.
The outreach is not necessarily because the committee believes the staffers were involved in what happened that day. But the investigative staff appears to be trying to glean more context on what was happening inside the West Wing before, during and after the attack, according to the sources.
A committee spokesman declined to comment.
CNN previously reported that Alyssa Farah, former director of strategic communications in the Trump White House, had voluntarily met with Republicans on the House select committee and provided information in several meetings, sources familiar with the matter said. Farah left the White House in December 2020.
News of the outreach comes as Trump is engaged in a legal battle over the committee’s investigation. Trump has sued the committee and the National Archives in an attempt to shield documents from them. And an attorney for the former President recently instructed four former Trump administration officials — Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Stephen Bannon and Kash Patel — not to provide any testimony or documents to the investigative panel, claiming they are protected “from disclosure by the executive and other privileges, including among others the presidential communications, deliberative process, and attorney-client privileges.”
On Monday, White House counsel Dana Remus informed the National Archives once again that President Joe Biden is refusing to assert privilege over additional documents that Trump argues should remain secret.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.
