© 2024 WXPR
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Jan. 6 panel to interview Wisconsin GOP Assembly speaker

FILE - Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talks to the media after Gov. Tony Evers' State of the State speech at the state Capitol on Feb. 15, 2022, in Madison, Wis. Vos filed a lawsuit Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022, to block a subpoena ordering him to testify before the House committee investigation the riots on the U.S. Capitol last year to discuss a conversation he had with Donald Trump about overturning the 2020 election.
Andy Manis
/
FR19153 AP
FILE - Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talks to the media after Gov. Tony Evers' State of the State speech at the state Capitol on Feb. 15, 2022, in Madison, Wis. Vos filed a lawsuit Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022, to block a subpoena ordering him to testify before the House committee investigation the riots on the U.S. Capitol last year to discuss a conversation he had with Donald Trump about overturning the 2020 election.

Wrapping up its interviews, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was expected to question Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Wednesday, the panel's chairman said.

Vos had filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a subpoena demanding his testimony about a phone call with Donald Trump in July 2021 during which the former president asked him to overturn Wisconsin's results for the 2020 election.

Both sides agreed to postpone oral arguments in the lawsuit that were originally scheduled for Oct. 24.

As for the committee's aims, Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel's chairman, told reporters Wednesday: “The president called him and encouraged him to try to get the election changed, and so we just want to see, from the committee’s perspective, if there’s any more information that we can glean from that."

The committee has spent parts of the past year and a half speaking to several state and local lawmakers in seven swing states that Democrat Joe Biden won in 2020. In the days and weeks after the presidential election, Trump and his allies sought to overturn the results in those states to favor the Republican.

Vos and his spokesperson Angela Joyce did not immediately return messages Wednesday.

Trump repeatedly pressured Vos to overturn Biden's narrow win in Wisconsin, but Vos says he rejected those efforts citing attorneys who said such a move would be illegal and unconstitutional. Vos did hire former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to conduct a review of the election, but fired him three days after Vos won his reelection primary over a Republican opponent Gableman endorsed. Trump also endorsed Vos's opponent.

In July, Trump called Vos to discuss a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that the use of absentee drop boxes was illegal. The ruling applied only to future elections, not the 2020 election conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic when absentee voting and the use of drop boxes soared.

Trump argued that the ruling meant absentee ballots delivered in drop boxes in Wisconsin in 2020 should be invalidated, Vos said.

“It’s very consistent,” Vos told WISN-TV. “He makes his case, which I respect. He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained it’s not allowed under the Constitution. He has a different opinion."

The nine-member U.S. House committee indicated Wednesday that its interview with Vos was the last scheduled deposition before turning all of its attention to its report, which is expected to be released by the end of the year.

Up North Updates
* indicates required
Related Content