Donald Trump ordered to testify in Capitol assault probe

Washington: Lawmakers probing the 2021 attack on the US Capitol said Friday they had issued former president Donald Trump with a subpoena to give evidence on his involvement in the violence.

The summons is not expected to produce testimony from the 76-year-old Republican leader, however, as the investigating congressional panel will almost certainly wrap up at the end of the year and will run out time to enforce it.

The summons requires Trump to produce documents to the committee by November 4 and to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or around November 14 - the Monday after the November 8 midterm elections

"As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power," the committee told Trump in a letter.

Trump, who on the day of the riot had urged his supporters in a fiery speech near the White House to "fight like hell," was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden on January 6, 2021.

The letter accused Trump of trying to overturn the election despite knowing that claims of fraud had been overwhelmingly rejected by more than 60 courts and refuted by his campaign staff and senior advisors.

"In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any US president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself," it added.