Published by
Reuters

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena on Thursday to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a U.S. television personality who is engaged to be married to Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of the former president.

Guilfoyle, who worked on Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, abruptly ended an interview with the Select Committee on Feb. 25, criticizing House of Representatives members who were present.

Her attorney issued a statement afterward saying Guilfoyle had agreed to meet only with attorneys for the Democratic-led House committee, not with members of Congress.

As a result, the committee said it would issue a subpoena to compel Guilfoyle’s cooperation. The panel asked Guilfoyle to appear for a deposition on March 15.

“Guilfoyle met with (former President) Donald Trump inside the White House, spoke at the rally that took place before the riot on January 6th, and apparently played a key role organizing and raising funds for that event,” Representative Bennie Thompson, committee chairman, said in a statement.

In a statement, Guilfoyle’s attorney Joe Tacopina accused the committee of “an attempt to smear” Trump, his family and supporters. “She had done nothing wrong,” he said.

The Select Committee is trying to establish the actions of Trump and associates before and during the assault on the Capitol by thousands of his supporters. The mobs attacked police, vandalized the building, and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives as they gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over Trump, a Republican.

The Select Committee has so far interviewed more than 560 witnesses and issued more than 80 subpoenas as it probes the causes of the attack and the role played by Trump, who continues to push false claims that his election defeat by Biden was the result of fraud.

Earlier on Thursday, the panel interviewed Judd Deere, a former White House spokesman who is now a Republican congressional aide.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Rami Ayyub, David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)