A House committee investigating the January 6 riot believes Donald Trump‘s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani will testify before them, a Republican congressman said on Sunday.
Adam Kinzinger, who along with Liz Cheney is one of only two Republicans on the panel, said that they are confident the 77-year-old will cooperate, despite Trump and some of his closest allies refusing to assist.
Giuliani was subpoenaed last month, along with his fellow lawyers Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, and former Trump White House aide Boris Epshteyn.
The panel asked them to turn over documents by February 1 and testify February 8.
‘Our expectation is he is going to cooperate because that’s the law, that’s the requirement, same as if somebody [is] subpoenaed to court,’ Kinzinger told CBS’s Face the Nation, adding ‘we fully expect that in accordance with the law, we’ll hear from Rudy.’
Adam Kinzinger on Sunday appeared on Face the Nation and said he believes Rudy Giuliani will cooperate with the House committee investigating the January 6 riot
Giuliani, 77, is reported to be in talks about cooperating with the committee
Kinzinger said the date of his testimony might change, but he believed it would happen.
‘Regardless of when we hear from Rudy or how long that interview is, we’re getting a lot of information and we’re looking forward to wrapping this up at some point when that is right, showing it to the American people, but not rushing it, not hurrying this,’ he said.
‘We want everybody to have the full story.’
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that three sources confirmed Giuliani was in discussions about responding to the committee’s questions.
Giuliani’s discussions with committee officials suggest that he may be seeking to avoid a potentially costly legal fight over the subpoena.
Giuliani argued that the election had been rigged and Trump was the rightful winner in the run up to the January 6 insurrection
Rioters are seen storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021
A House committee is investigating how the insurrection unfolded
The former mayor of New York, a one-time state attorney general, is already facing a potentially ruinous lawsuit filed in January 2021 by Dominion Voting Systems, who accuse him of defamation after he claimed without evidence that the company rigged the election to defeat Trump.
The committee has already interviewed more than 475 witnesses and received over 60,000 pages of records.
High-profile members of Trump’s inner circle – such as his chief of staff Mark Meadows and former strategist Steve Bannon – have refused to cooperate, and have both been charged with contempt of Congress.
Public hearings are expected to begin in the spring or summer.
‘We will want to be able to take this information and present it to the American people, not just in a report which is going to be essential, but in people, in faces and in stories,’ he said.
Jenna Ellis (speaking at podium) has also been subpoenaed, as has Sidney Powell (in the leopard print cardigan)
Kinzinger and Cheney were both condemned by the Republican National Committee earlier this month for their role on the committee.
The resolution punishing the pair declared the committee’s investigation ‘a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell disagreed with the resolution.
Kinzinger said McConnell’s statement, as well as former Vice President Mike Pence’s rejection of Trump’s claim he could have rejected state electoral votes, was ‘important,’ but said all Republicans ‘have to take definitive lines.’
‘This is a moment where every Republican — I don’t care if you’re running for city council all the way up to Congress, Senate, etc. — every Republican has to be clear and forceful on the record: Do they think January 6th was legitimate political discourse?’ he said.
‘Don’t let them avoid it. Don’t let them hem haw and don’t let them transition to some other subject they’d rather talk about. This is an answer every one of them have to give, and then we can move on once they’re clear and on the record. But this is definitive to our democracy. How do you feel? Was it legitimate?’