House Jan. 6 committee to wait for court ruling before enforcing Vos subpoena

The U.S. House committee won’t force Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) to testify before its next televised public hearing, if that takes place within the next month.

In a status hearing in federal court Tuesday, attorneys for Vos and for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol said they’d agreed that the committee won’t enforce its subpoena before a federal judge rules in the lawsuit that Vos filed to block the order.

That ruling could come on or after Oct. 24, the day that Federal Judge Pamela Pepper scheduled for the lawyers to argue on the merits of Vos’ lawsuit. 

The committee was scheduled to hold its next hearing Wednesday, but postponed the session Tuesday, citing the impending landfall of Hurricane Ian.

Vos sued the House committee on Sunday after being served with the subpoena Saturday afternoon. 

The subpoena seeks Vos’ testimony about his conversation in July with former President Donald Trump, when Trump sought his support to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 election results.

In his suit to block the order to testify, Vos cited the short notice he was given and said his July conversation with Trump was outside the scope of the committee’s charge to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

At Tuesday’s hearing, which was held remotely, the legal team representing Vos expanded with the addition of a Missouri lawyer who has represented other Republicans in litigation growing out of the 2020 election: Edward Greim, of the law firm Graves Garrett in Kansas City. 

Greim is a member of the defense team for James Troupis, one of the 10 people who claimed to be Wisconsin electors and submitted false paperwork that said Trump won the state’s electoral votes in 2020 instead of the actual winner, Joe Biden. The 10 electors are being sued on behalf of two of the official electors and a Wisconsin voter.

Greim is listed as a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and the Federalist Society, an organization of conservative lawyers.

Tuesday’s hearing was held primarily to schedule the formal trial in Vos’ lawsuit as well as the briefs in preparation for that date. Greim told Pepper that no witnesses were expected to testify. The schedule calls for an initial brief from Vos, a reply from the House committee and a follow-up from Vos, the latter due Oct. 17.