Jan 6 committee member refuses to rule out subpoenaing Mike Pence

Thursday’s hearing centred around effort to convince Pence to interfere in election certification

The January 6 committee is not ruling anything out to get potential high-profile witnesses including former Vice President Mike Pence to comply with requests for testimony, including subpoenas, a member of the panel said on Sunday.

Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, told CNN’s State of the Union that Mr Pence was among a number of potential witnesses whom the committee was still hoping would comply and provide their testimony before the lawmakers wrap up their investigation.

“So like, why not subpoena Mike Pence?” asked CNN’s Dana Bash. “I know you asked him to testify voluntarily, and that didn’t happen.”

“We’re not taking anything off the table in terms of witnesses who have not testified,” Mr Schiff replied, adding that he “cannot disclose private conversations” about future witnesses.

“So Mike Pence is a possibility still?” Bash asked.

“Certainly a possibility, we’re not excluding anyone or anything at this point,” said the congressman.

The warning comes as the committee has rocked Washington with revelations about the attack on Capitol Hill in three of its six scheduled public hearings over the past several weeks. Lawmakers on the committee have relied heavily on statements from members of Mr Trump’s own campaign staff and family to make their case that the ex-president pursued a course of conspiracy-monguering about the 2020 election in the face of advice to the contrary from every available expert and many of his closest advisers.

On Thursday, the committee’s hearing focused exclusively on Mr Pence himself and the weeks-long effort to convince him to interfere in the meeting of the Senate on 6 January 2021, when the upper chamber of Congress certified the Electoral College count. Typically, such sessions are largely ceremonial as the presidential election concludes months earlier.

Instead, Donald Trump and his closest advisers urged Mr Pence up until the moment of the Senate vote itself to refuse to recognise Electoral College votes from states where the Trump team had baselessly alleged fraud, a scheme that the committee revealed many including some involved in it thought was illegal.

Mr Pence has remained steadfast in public remarks in his belief that he did not have the constitutional authority to interfere in the Senate session, a belief that led to rioters chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the halls of Congress on Jan 6.