Donald Trump’s Mental Health, Claims of Election Fraud, Martial Law Become Focus of House Committee Probe

The House committee probing the Capitol riot has shown interest in former President Donald Trump's mental health and whether he has considered enacting martial law.

According to The Hill, the House panel is currently seeking documents or records on family members of Donald Trump and a long list of former aides as part of its probe.

The House committee is also asking the White House and federal agencies to relay conversations about whether Trump planned to use the military to remain in power and if there were any plans to remove the former president from office.

Federal agencies were also asked to relay all documents and communications related to the mental stability" of Trump or "his fitness for office" after the January 6 Capitol attack by a mob of Trump supporters.

The House committee is also seeking information about efforts within the administration of Trump to push the former president's baseless claims of election fraud and any attempt to overturn the November election's results or to hinder "the peaceful transfer of power."

If provided, the documents could offer new insight into whether former Vice President Pence and Trump's Cabinet members were considering taking action following reports that administration officials were eyeing to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump's last weeks in office.

House Committee Requesting Documents

Requesting documents is normally the starting point for investigations as the committee builds a public record detailing the Capitol riot.

These requests were made for White House records from the National Archives, along with documents from the departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and Interior and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI.

The House committee members are also eyeing to ask telecommunications companies to preserve phone records of certain people, including members of Congress, Los Angeles Times reported.

The phone records would help the panel determine who knew about the Capitol riot and when did they know it. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson is leading the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Thompson.

Thompson did not give the names of lawmakers whose records would be asked. But he said officials would be contacting communication companies, social media platforms, and other big tech firms.

Thompson said the agencies have to comply with the requests to turn over documents by September 9. He said they would look at everything that will give them information on what happened on January 6, The New York Times report.

So far, the 13-person committee has only heard from police officers, who were at the Capitol last January 6.

Donald Trump Accuses the House Committee of Trying to 'Distract'

According to another The Hill report, Donald Trump has accused the House committee of trying to "distract" with its latest request of the trove of documents and communications.

The former president dubbed the House panel as the "Leftist 'select committee." Donald Trump said the committee was trying to distract Americans from "historic and global catastrophes brought on by the failures of (President) Joe Biden and the Democrats."

The former president noted that executive privilege would be defended.

"Not just on behalf of my administration and the Patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our nation," he added.

Donald Trump said the Democrats have one trick - political theater - and the latest request only proves "that pathetic reality."

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy described the committee's investigation as "so political." McCarthy was asked if he would turn over his phone records from January 6, which he answered that he already told the American public who he was speaking to that day. The lawmaker was referring to his television news appearance on that day.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Banks said turning over phone records to investigate lawmakers was an "abuse of power." Republican Rep. Liz Cheney earlier noted that the public should know what happened "every minute of that day" inside the White House.

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Written by: Mary Webber

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