The preservation of communications records is the first step in an investigative process that could ultimately lead to witness testimony. The notices will be posted as early as this week and will provide the first window on the types of information the committee plans to follow.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the selection committee, has said she expects to issue citations in late August. Thompson has also signed a broader research strategy that will serve as a guide for the group’s work in the future, according to a source familiar with the planning document.
While it is not yet clear what member records the committee is interested in, several Republican lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Republican Party Representative Jim Jordan, have admitted to speaking by phone with then-President Donald Trump on January 6th.
Democrats have also accused some of their Republican Party colleagues of interacting with individuals who stormed the U.S. Capitol before the attack.
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Thompson confirmed that the committee was willing to send letters to telecommunications companies, but also indicated that they would be sent to social media companies, though he declined to name which ones.
“In terms of telecom companies, they’re the ones you already know almost, the major networks, the social media platforms, that sort of thing,” Thompson told CNN Monday.
“I can tell you that we will look at everything that will give us information about what happened on January 6,” Thompson said. “We’ll see all the records at some point.”
The Mississippi Democrat said the letters requesting record keeping have not yet come out, but that there is a wide range of people the Committee plans to contact.
“We have a pretty comprehensive list of people. I won’t tell you who they are. But there are several hundred people who make up the list of individuals we plan to contact,” he said.
Jordan, who has said he spoke with the former Trump on Jan. 6, told CNN Monday that the committee had not contacted him to keep his records, but said if he does he will comply.
“I have nothing to hide. I’ve said it all along, I have nothing to hide,” said Jordan, an Ohio Republican, but warned that if the committee took that step there could be political retribution.
So far, much of the committee’s work has been behind closed doors, and the exact scope of the investigation is still unclear, but there are indications that it could become a massive undertaking.
The resolution authorizing the selection committee does not provide specific limitations as to what it can and cannot investigate, leaving it up to the committee to impose its own monitoring rails and a narrower focus.
Initial plans involve gathering large amounts of data, documents, and finally convincing testimony from a wide range of potential witnesses, including members of Congress, former members of the Trump administration, and some of the hundreds of riots that have been blamed. of attacking the Capitol. day.
To date, committee officials have offered few details about possible citation targets, although Republican Party Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and other members of the group have made it clear that investigators must “reach all the information that matters “. This probably includes putting together a detailed understanding of what Trump and his closest allies were doing that day and before the attack.
The selection committee has also begun meeting with relevant agencies at the staff level, one of the sources familiar with the committee’s investigation told CNN, another indication that the probe could finally begin to increase in the coming days. weeks.
The committee has expressed interest in talking to former Justice Department officials who have been linked to Trump’s effort to push for false claims about election fraud. CNN previously reported that it could search relevant White House call records in the National Archives, which have legal custody of all presidential records from the Trump era.
However, the Archive noted that there is a process “by which Congress and the current administration can request access to the records of former administrations.”
According to two sources familiar with the process, the House committees that signed the March letter have received documents from the Archives on an ongoing basis. These documents and other materials relevant to Jan. 6 will be shared with the selection committee, which is now working to examine all issues related to the attack, the sources added.
This story was updated with additional details Monday.