House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy posted on social media Friday a letter from his lawyer signaling he would not comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

The move comes as no surprise, as McCarthy (R-CA) has been a vocal critic of the panel since its beginning. He co-authored this week an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) this week, arguing that “for House Republican leaders to agree to participate in this political stunt would change the House forever.”


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In a letter to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, McCarthy’s lawyer Elliot Berke wrote that the committee is “clearly not acting within the confines of any legislative purpose. Its only objective appears to be to attempt to score political points or damage its political opponents — acting like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee one day and the Department of Justice the next.”

The letter then laid out questions for the committee, including a request to provide “a list of subject and topics the Select Committee would like to discuss with the Leader, and the constitutional and legal rationale justifying the request.”

"I expressly reserve Leader McCarthy’s right to assert any other applicable privilege or objection to the Select Committee’s subpoena,” Berke wrote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blocked some of McCarthy’s nominees to the select panel last year, citing unfounded claims of election fraud made by the nominees or, in Jordan’s case, his proximity to the panel’s investigation.

McCarthy pulled all of his nominees in response, and Pelosi later added Republican Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to the panel.

When the select committee subpoenaed McCarthy and several other Republican lawmakers earlier this month, Thompson said in a statement that the committee “has learned that several of our colleagues have information relevant to our investigation into the attack on January 6th and the events leading up to it.”

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“Before we hold our hearings next month, we wished to provide members the opportunity to discuss these matters with the committee voluntarily,” he said, adding that “regrettably” that invitation was declined, so the panel issued the subpoenas.