CNN Legal Expert Hits Jan. 6 Committee for Waiting Too Long to Subpoena Trump: ‘The Clock is Going to Run Out’

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack waited too long to subpoena former President Donald Trump and predicted he would avoid testifying.

The committee subpoenaed the former president last month in regard to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Lawmakers said they had found “overwhelming evidence” Trump was “personally” responsible after many of his supporters violently crashed the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” an Oct. 21 statement attributed to Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) read.

Trump was ordered to speak under oath and to produce records the committee said were relevant to its investigation.

“The subpoena to Mr. Trump requires the production of documents to the Select Committee by November 4 and to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about November 14,” the committee said.

Trump defied the subpoena.

On CNN Newsroom Tuesday, Honig predicted the former president would “win” his bid to avoid speaking to lawmakers. Honig cast most of the blame on the committee itself for waiting until weeks before the midterms to issue the subpoena:

Yeah, Donald Trump is playing the delay game hear, and he’s going to win in large part because the Jan. 6th committee waited so long – until last month – to issue the subpoena. They could have issued the subpoena six months ago, a year ago. Now here we are. We’re 50 days out from a new Congress taking over. There’s no way this case gets all the way through the district court, the court of appeals and potentially the Supreme Court in that time. So, Trump has an easy obvious move here.

“He’s going to delay, and there’s no way this gets resolved by January 3, 2023,” Honig concluded.

Watch above, via CNN.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]