AP sources: Trump aide Stephen Miller speaks to panel 1/6

WASHINGTON — Stephen Miller, who served as a top aide to President Donald Trump, was questioned for hours Thursday by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Miller was a senior policy adviser under the Trump administration and a central figure in many of the Republican’s decisions. He had resisted previous efforts by the committee, filing a lawsuit last month seeking to overturn a subpoena for his phone records.

Miller was interviewed virtually for about eight hours, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private testimony. A second person also confirmed that Miller appeared before the committee. A committee spokesperson said the panel had no comment, and Miller did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Miller is the latest in a series of meetings the committee has marked with those in Trump’s inner circle as lawmakers get closer to the former president by interviewing people who were with him on the day of the attack or were his confidants in the weeks leading up to this.

Her appearance comes weeks after Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also agreed to sit down with congressional investigators, months after the committee first made contact.

Panel members said Kushner’s testimony in late March, which lasted more than six hours, was helpful. Ivanka Trump, who was with her father in the White House on January 6, was questioned for eight hours last week as congressional investigators tried to piece together her father’s failed efforts to delay certification of the 2020 election results .

The nine-member panel subpoenaed the former Trump adviser in November along with Steve Bannon and former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the panel, said at the time that Miller knew about and participated in “efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud” and encouraged state legislatures. to alter the outcome of the 2020 election by appointing alternate voters.

Thompson also said Miller helped prepare Trump’s remarks for a rally on the Ellipse that preceded the insurgency and was with Trump when he spoke.

The House voted last week to scorn former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino for their month-long refusal to comply with subpoenas. The move was the third time the panel has referred people in the former president’s orbit to the Justice Department for possible contempt charges. The first two references, sent late last year, were to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Bannon.

Bannon’s contempt charge resulted in an impeachment, with a trial set to begin in July. The Justice Department was slower to decide whether to prosecute Meadows, much to the committee’s frustration.

By agreeing to cooperate, Miller appears to be seeking to avoid the fate of these former advisers and administration officials.

For the committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, the central facts of the insurgency are known, but what members hope to do with more than 850 interviews and more than 100,000 documents is fill in the remaining gaps on the attack on the Capitol. . Lawmakers say they are pledging to present a full accounting to ensure this never happens again.

The panel examines all aspects of the riot, including what Trump was doing while it was unfolding and any connection between the White House and Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol building.

Members plan to release information in the coming months as the committee begins to hold public hearings and eventually releases a series of reports on the insurgency. While there have been discussions about possibly pursuing a criminal referral against Trump, lawmakers have not made a final decision.

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Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.