Welcome to the beat. I am Ari Melbert. Tonight's news begins with the question that's rolled around this entire exercise of these significant insurrection hearings.

When are they going to directly confront Donald Trump? Well, the answer is complicated, and whatever one thinks of that particular president, the fact is Congress does not typically question or subpoena presidents.

The St. England. The legislature does not question the president the way you would see in those

sort of sessions that they hold with the legislature. But tonight, the news is that might change.

There's solid reporting that the House is eyeing Trump himself

as the January 6th committee is meeting behind closed doors,

weighing what you see here.

The certainly costly potential clash over trying to make Trump testify

as well as pursuing an interview with Pence.

Now, going at Trump would surely take a subpoena and then a court battle over it.

Wall Street Journal reporting all of this.

And Trump has spent his whole career resisting these kind of moves.

We know that.

Sometimes he prevails and sometimes he loses.

There have been court losses that forced him into the taped deposition that you see right here

on your screen. That only came after he was forced into that situation. That was also while he was

in business. The committee has also been mostly using that same taped model, what looks like a

deposition, for these witnesses. So they're considering trying to make Trump join the group.

He was also recently held in contempt by the New York State Attorney General over related clashes in that probe,

and they now on the Trump side are trying to get out from under that and get out of what was a

daily fine in contempt. So I'm telling you, there are precedents here that could work to

compel testimony even against a former president by this committee.

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