Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Former Trump Officials, Including Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon

The Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued subpoenas to four former Trump administration officials, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows and strategist Steve Bannon.

The panel also issued subpoenas Thursday to former Trump White House deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino and Kashyap Patel, who served as chief of staff to then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

Updated September 23, 2021 at 8:01 PM ET

The subpoenas — the first issued by the select committee — compel the four to produce sought-after documents, relevant to the attack by Oct. 7, and then sit for a deposition the following week.

The panel says the four are in possession of important details related to the deadly siege.

"The Select Committee is investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack and issues relating to the peaceful transfer of power, in order to identify and evaluate lessons learned and to recommend to the House and its relevant committees corrective laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations," Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement.

In individually addressed letters, Thompson details further why the recipients are believed to have important information for the panel.

Thompson tells Meadows, for instance, that he has "critical information regarding many elements of our inquiry," including engaging in multiple efforts to contest the presidential election that Trump lost.

Republicans have painted the committee, which is mostly made up of Democrats, as nothing more than a partisan exercise. [Copyright 2021 NPR]