The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol is steeling itself for its first encounter with an immovable object: Donald Trump.
Some aspects of its work are proceeding smoothly. The panel has held its first closed-door transcribed interviews with willing witnesses, according to sources familiar with those efforts, and new ones are scheduled for this week.
But even as it digs into what exactly happened and at whose behest, the select committee is preparing to slam into a wall of resistance in a few days — an anticipated effort by Trump and his allies to defy the Jan. 6 probe.
The former president has a fast-approaching deadline to attempt to block the National Archives from releasing records from his White House that could shed light on his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. And some of Trump’s closest aides have until Thursday to comply with a committee subpoena for their own records.