WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol voted on Thursday to subpoena Donald Trump, an action that could eventually result in the former president’s imprisonment if he does not comply.

The House select committee’s seven Democratic and two Republican members voted 9-0 in favour of issuing a subpoena for Trump to provide documents and testify under oath in connection with the Jan 6 attack.

“He is the one person at the centre of the story of what happened on Jan 6. So we want to hear from him,” said the panel’s Democratic chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson.

The vote came after the committee spent more than two hours making its case — via statements from members, documents, and recorded testimony — that Trump planned to deny his election defeat in advance, failed to call off the thousands of supporters who stormed the Capitol, and followed through with his false claims the election was stolen.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2022