The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack is studying whether it has the legal authority to subpoena sitting GOP members of Congress in the course of its inquiry.

“I think there are some questions of whether we have the authority to do it,” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the panel, said Sunday on Meet The Press. “We’re looking at it. If the authorities are there, there’ll be no reluctance on our part.”

“No reluctance” sure sounds like panel members are ready to pull the trigger if they conclude they have the power to do so.

So far, the committee has sought the testimony of Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Jordan has admitted to having spoken with Donald Trump on the day of the insurrection, though he has edged in several media interviews on precisely what time that call took place. Jordan told Fox News he is reviewing the request, but also accused the panel of misleading Americans about a text he sent to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Jordan laughably claimed the panel had altered the text because a committee member excerpted part of it rather than quoting it in full.

The panel’s letter to Jordan on Dec. 22 indicated an interest in both his communications with Trump on the day of the Capitol attack along with the Trump officials and henchmen who reportedly helped mastermind the effort to overturn the results.   

“We understand that you had at least one and possibly multiple communications with President Trump on Jan. 6,” Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, said in the letter. “We would like to discuss each such communication with you in detail. And we also wish to inquire about any communications you had on January 5th or 6th with those in the Willard War Room, the Trump legal team, White House personnel, or others involved in organizing or planning the actions and strategies for Jan. 6.”

Perry was reportedly instrumental in introducing Trump to then-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who made an aggressive internal push to get his superiors to legitimize Trump’s concerns about election fraud in several states. Trump even considered ousting the then-acting head of the Justice Department, Jeffrey Rosen, and installing Clark.

Perry has declined to voluntarily cooperate with the Jan. 6 panel, calling it “illegitimate.” A federal appeals court disagreed with Perry’s assessment in a December ruling regarding access to Trump-era White House records.

But Jordan and Perry are far from the only sitting GOP lawmakers in whom the Jan. 6 panel will likely take an interest. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been sweating bullets over that scenario since late last summer when the committee asked telecom companies to preserve the communications of about a dozen members of the House GOP caucus, including Jordan, Perry, and McCarthy.