Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Vos fighting subpoena from January 6 Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WBAY) - The committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

Vos, in turn, has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Wisconsin to prevent the Committee from enforcing the subpoena.

The Committee called on Vos to appear for a deposition today--Sept. 26. That deposition was cancelled pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

The Committee wants to ask Vos about a July 2022 phone call with former President Donald Trump “in which Mr. Trump asked you to take measures to change the result of the 2020 Presidential election in Wisconsin.”

The call happened after the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a ruling banning the use of unmanned drop boxes for absentee ballots.

“After you reportedly told Mr. Trump that what he was requesting is not allowed under the Wisconsin constitution, Mr. Trump posted derogatory statements about you on Truth Social and endorsed your challenger in the 2022 Republican primary,” reads the letter from the Committee.

The Jan 6 committee subpoena is referring to this interview with us when Speaker Vos first revealed the phone call with Trump https://t.co/BEm0sZP6in
— Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) September 26, 2022

The Committee believes Vos’ interaction with Trump is relevant to the investigation.

Vos filed suit in federal court, stating the subpoena violates his legislative immunity from civil process and falls outside what the committee was authorized to investigate.

“The only explanation for such an extreme timeline is the Committee’s desire to conduct the deposition before its next publicly televised hearing on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, so that clips can be edited out to be used in a multimedia show,” reads the document filed in Wisconsin’s Eastern District. “Importantly, the Committee is not seeking to depose Speak Vos to question him about the breach of the Capitol, the events leading up to January 6, 2021, or the events of the 2020 election. Rather, the Committee is seeking to depose Speaker Vos, with no notice, to ask him about a conversation he had with former President Donald Trump two months ago. In short, the Committee is demanding Speaker Vos appear for a deposition to answer questions irrelevant to the Committee’s investigation, with virtually no notice, in the closing days of his reelection campaign, merely because of the Committee’s public relations scheme.”

Vos is seeking a hearing within 72 hours on a temporary restraining order preventing the committee from enforcing the subpoena.

“If a state legislative leader can be haled before Congress—on two days’ notice—anytime he receives a phone call from a former President, there is no limit to the mischief a Congressional Committee could engage in, either for partisan purposes or good old-fashioned harassment. The public has a decided interest in protecting legislative leaders from being targeted for engaging in the political process,” Vos states.