Jan. 6 committee issues latest round of subpoenas for rally organizers

Source: The Hill | October 7, 2021 | Rebecca Beitsch

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued three new subpoenas Thursday, continuing its focus on those organizing rallies the day former President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol.

The subpoenas went to Nathan Martin and Ali Abdul Akbar, also known as Ali Alexander, and an affiliated corporation titled Stop the Steal LLC.

Both men’s names and contact information are listed on a permit application for the “One Nation Under God” event, which sought to rally on “the election fraud in the swing states.”

“Mr. Alexander explained it was the intention of Stop the Steal to direct earlier attendees of a rally on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. oh Jan. 6 held by Women for America First and ‘sponsored’ by Stop the Steal to march at the conclusion of that rally to Lot 8 on the U.S. Capitol Grounds, which is the location for which the [U.S. Capitol Police] granted the permit for the ‘One Nation Under God,’ rally,” the committee writes in the subpoena.

The letters follow 11 subpoenas issued last week requesting documents and depositions from the Women for America First leaders who helped organize the rally at which Trump spoke on Jan. 6. 

“The rally on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy. Over the course of that day, demonstrations escalated to violence and protestors became rioters,” committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement accompanying the subpoenas.

“The Select Committee needs to understand all the details about the events that came before the attack, including who was involved in planning and funding them. We expect these witnesses to cooperate fully with our probe.”

The rally permit application from One Nation Under God said they were expecting just 50 attendees.

But the subpoena says Alexander was involved in a number of different efforts planning demonstrations around Jan. 6., including speaking at an event in which he led the crowd in chanting “victory or death.”

“According to press reports, in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, you made repeated reference during Stop the Steal-sponsored events to the possible use of violence to achieve the organization’s goals and claimed to have been in communication with the White House and members of Congress regarding events planned to coincide with the certification of the 2020 election results,” the committee wrote in the letter to Alexander. 

The reference to lawmakers comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report earlier Thursday following its own eight-month investigation into Trump’s pressure campaign at the Department of Justice, noting the involvement of Reps. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in coordinating with rally organizers. 

It lists Perry among “numerous allies with clear ties to the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement and the January 6 insurrection” that helped aid Trump in his dealings with DOJ.

The committee has said lawmakers were likely to be among those whose records would be sought by the committee.

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