WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Sunday that he “fully” expects Rudy Giuliani, an ally of former President Donald Trump, to cooperate with its subpoena.
The committee subpoenaed Giuliani last month, and “our expectation is he is going to cooperate because that’s the law, that’s the requirement, same as if somebody subpoenaed to court,” Kinzinger said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” after host Margaret Brennan asked him whether Giuliani was cooperating following a New York Times report that he was in talks about testifying.
“There may be some changes and dates and moments here as, you know, lawyers do their back and forth. But we fully expect that, in accordance with the law, we’ll hear from Rudy,” said Kinzinger, who is one of two Republicans on the panel.
A committee aide told NBC News on Sunday: “Mr. Giuliani’s appearance was rescheduled at his request. He remains under subpoena and the Select Committee expects him to cooperate fully.”
In addition to Giuliani, the panel issued subpoenas for three other Trump allies in January, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn, who were involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The four people, the committee said at the time, “publicly promoted unsupported claims about the 2020 election and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of election results.”
The panel said Giuliani “actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results. He was reported to have been in contact with then-President Trump and various Members of Congress regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the results of the 2020 election.”
The committee is getting a lot of information, and “we’re looking forward to wrapping this up at some point when that is right, showing it to the American people, but not rushing it, not hurrying this,” Kinzinger said Sunday. “We want everybody to have the full story.”
The Republican National Committee voted this month to formally censure two of its own party’s members — Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — because of their work on the panel.
Several Republicans have denounced the censure, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who said last week it isn’t the job of the RNC to single out members “of our party who may have different views from the majority.”
Kinzinger praised McConnell for his statement. He also said: “I have lost faith in some of the courage of my colleagues. I thought that every person when they swore an oath had some version of a red line they would never cross. But certainly, Mitch McConnell’s statement was important.”
Kinzinger, who has said he is retiring from Congress, also expressed his belief that every Republican needs to come forward and be clear about their positions on what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Every Republican has to be clear and forceful on the record. Do they think January 6th was legitimate political discourse? Don’t let them avoid it. Don’t let them hem haw, and don’t let them transition to some other subject they’d rather talk about,” he said.
“This is an answer every one of them have to give, and then we can move on once they’re clear and on the record. But this is definitive to our democracy. How do you feel? Was it legitimate?”
Haley Talbot contributed.