Jan. 6 panel hits pause on enforcing subpoena for RNC records

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot has agreed to delay enforcement of a subpoena seeking information from a vendor that provides data and digital communications work for the Republican National Committee.

The House panel said Wednesday it would hold off on pursuing the records request while the RNC challenges the subpoena in court.

The RNC last week sued the Jan. 6 committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to block the Salesforce subpoena, which it characterized as "overbroad" and part of a “fishing expedition” that could expose its strategies and the personal information of its members and donors.

A spokesman for the House committee, Tim Mulvey, disputed the characterization, saying in a statement that the panel had “issued a subpoena to an email fundraising vendor in order to help investigators understand the impact of false, inflammatory messages in the weeks before January 6th, the flow of funds, and whether contributions were actually directed to the purpose indicated.”

“This action has absolutely nothing to do with getting the private information of voters or donors,” Mulvey said.

The Feb. 23 subpoena told Salesforce to hand over the requested information by Wednesday. In a joint filing in the Washington, D.C., federal court case Wednesday, the Jan. 6 committee agreed to postpone enforcement for two weeks to allow all three parties — the House committee, the RNC and Salesforce — to present their arguments to a judge.

The RNC has been outspoken in its criticism of the Jan. 6 committee, particularly the two GOP lawmakers on the nine-member panel. Last month, the RNC voted to censure Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for their participation on the committee and their criticism of former President Donald Trump.

The censure resolution described Cheney and Kinzinger as “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel later described it as discourse “that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”