House Jan. 6 committee subpoenas retired Army colonel who worked for Trump’s outside legal team

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Jan. 6 panel, testifies before the House Rules Committee on Dec. 14. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob announced Thursday it had issued a subpoena to retired Army Col. Phil Waldron as it investigates the causes of the insurrection.

Waldron worked with Trump’s outside legal team and circulated and briefed members of Congress on a PowerPoint presentation that outlined various proposals to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A version of the presentation that Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows handed over to the committee surfaced last week after the panel made some of its findings public.

The subpoena requested that Waldron appear for a deposition on Jan. 17 and provide documents to the committee by Jan. 10.

“Mr. Waldron reportedly played a role in promoting claims of election fraud and circulating potential strategies for challenging results of the 2020 election,” Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s chairman, said in a statement. “He was also apparently in communication with officials in the Trump White House and in Congress discussing his theories in the weeks leading up to the January 6th attack. The document he reportedly provided to Administration officials and Members of Congress is an alarming blueprint for overturning a nationwide election.”

The House select committee investigating the attempted insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 faces an uphill battle with former Trump administration officials. (Video: Blair Guild/The Washington Post)

The committee has issued over 50 subpoenas and has interviewed more than 250 people, but further interest in Waldron comes as the committee has homed in on Meadows, who the House voted to hold in contempt of Congress this week, as an integral part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election.

In an interview with the The Washington Post last week, Waldron said he had a meeting at the White House in the days around Christmas with Meadows and others. During that meeting, Waldron said, Meadows asked: “What do you need? What would help?” Waldron said he then presented a list developed by his team for Meadows with information he believed needed to be investigated.

Meadows, according to Waldron, indicated that he would pass the list on to John Ratcliffe, then the director of national intelligence.

The PowerPoint circulated by Waldron, described by him as the product of a “huge team effort” by individuals he declined to name, included a proposal for Vice President Mike Pence to reject on Jan. 6 electors from the “states where fraud occurred,” along with another proposal in which U.S. marshals and National Guard troops would “secure” and count paper ballots in key states in the case that the electoral certification of Joe Biden’s victory was delayed.