The House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol building has subpoenaed testimony and records related to the “Stop the Steal” rally on the grounds of the Capitol that day.
The subpoenas seek deposition testimony from Ali Abdul Akbar, also known as Ali Alexander, and Nathan Martin, who are connected to permit applications for the rally, and request the production of records from those individuals and from Stop the Steal LLC, which was affiliated with the event, according to a press release from the committee.
“The rally on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy. Over the course of that day, demonstrations escalated to violence and protestors became rioters,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., committee chairman, said in a statement.
“The Select Committee needs to understand all the details about the events that came before the attack, including who was involved in planning and funding them. We expect these witnesses to cooperate fully with our probe,” he said.
According to the committee, documents it received showed that an organization called “One Nation Under God” submitted a permit application in December to the U.S. Capitol Police for a rally about “the election fraud in the swing states” on Jan. 6 on the Capitol grounds.
Martin’s phone number and email address were among the contact information for “One Nation Under God,” the committee’s press release said.
“A vendor who was also listed on the permit application informed Capitol Police that he was reporting to Ali Alexander and Mr. Martin and identified them both as being affiliated with Stop the Steal,” the release read. “On two of its websites, Stop the Steal advertised the Capitol rally event and sought donations to offset expenses for January 6th.”
But the permit application did not disclose any connection between Stop the Steal and the Capitol rally event, according to the release, and when a Capitol Police official spoke with Martin at the end of December, he claimed he had no information about the rally and told the official to talk to the vendor.
The police official said the vendor was “shocked” to learn this because he was in “daily communication” with Martin about the event, according to the release.
After the Jan. 6 attack, Alexander released a statement acknowledging that Stop the Steal had obtained the rally permit “for our ‘One Nation Under God’ event,” the release said.
It said that he explained the Stop the Steal rally’s intent was to direct attendees on the Ellipse to march at the conclusion to the site of the “One Nation Under God” rally, which was to have only 50 attendees.
The subpoenas require records to be produced by Oct. 21, and for Martin and Alexander to testify on Oct. 28 and 29.
