The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is dropping its subpoena against the Republican National Committee and Salesforce, a software vendor, according to people familiar with the development.
Jan. 6 committee withdraws subpoena against RNC and Salesforce
Counsel for Salesforce and the RNC were notified this week that the committee is formally withdrawing a subpoena issued earlier this year, seeking records from Salesforce on performance metrics and analytics related to email campaigns for former president Donald Trump, his election campaign and the RNC.
“Given the current stage of its investigation, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has determined that it no longer has a need to pursue the specific information requested in the February 23, 2022 subpoena that it issued to Salesforce,” House general counsel Douglas Letter wrote in an email reviewed by The Washington Post, notifying the parties of the motion to dismiss the case.
The committee had previously argued that records from the RNC’s fundraising platform, which is owned by Salesforce, were necessary to understand how the RNC’s fundraising practices might have inspired some rioters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The move comes in the final days of Congress’s August recess, which congressional investigators have spent following up on threads that emerged over the course of the investigation and tracking down new tips. Lawmakers on the panel are expected to resume public hearings this month.
“We said all along that this subpoena was unconstitutional. This is a victory for freedom of speech, privacy, and Americans’ right of political association without fear of partisan reprisal,” said RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn. The Jan. 6 committee declined to comment.
Committee investigators have remained focused on Trump’s fundraising practices related to claims the election was stolen and have continued to interview Republican Party and Trump campaign officials about their fundraising tactics, said people familiar with the matter.
A panel of three federal appeals judges temporarily blocked the Jan. 6 committee from obtaining RNC records earlier this summer. The temporary injunction came after the RNC appealed a federal judge’s decision ordering Salesforce to comply with the subpoena.
The RNC is the only entity to date to successfully oppose a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the insurrection.
Source: WP
