OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Democrat-led January 6 is imploding and Democrats are not happy about it. The public hearings have already faced a slew of issues and the committee has officially withdrawn its subpoena for former President Donald Trump to testify before Congress.
The committee’s probe is nearing its end before Republicans take control of the U.S. House in January. The Los Angeles Times published a report complaining that the “Jan. 6 committee is running out of time” and that “key documents may soon be locked away for decades.”
“Just days before it disbands and loses control over the millions of pages of evidence it has gathered, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has released transcripts of just 126 of the more than 1,000 interviews it conducted. If the committee runs out of time, the largest compilation of evidence about the attack could be lost — locked away by the National Archives for decades, or withheld from the public so as to not harm the ongoing Justice Department investigation into the attack, experts warn,” the report stated.
“The staff is probably scrambling to organize files, determining where to relocate information and what to release to the public, and weighing whether to accept redaction requests submitted by federal agencies — a time-consuming process,” the outlet added.
Some after venting frustration with outgoing Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who has drawn anger from staffers working for the House Committee for her insistence on going after Trump.
According to the Washington Post, at least 15 current and former staffers for the committee have said they believe the Wyoming Republican is working behind the scenes to ensure that the final report focuses primarily on former President Donald Trump at the expense of other important information.
“We all came from prestigious jobs, dropping what we were doing because we were told this would be an important fact-finding investigation that would inform the public,” a former staffer told the outlet. “But when [the committee] became a Cheney 2024 campaign, many of us became discouraged.”
Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Cheney, said the lawmaker, who was beaten in an August primary by now Rep.-elect Harriet Hageman, said his boss was merely attempting to protect the integrity of the panel’s work by eliminating “liberal bias” and narratives that otherwise tainted the investigative work done by the committee as well as a draft report.
“Donald Trump is the first president in American history to attempt to overturn an election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power,” Adler told WaPo in a statement. “So, damn right, Liz is ‘prioritizing’ understanding what he did and how he did it and ensuring it never happens again.”
“Some staff have submitted subpar material for the report that reflects long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement, Republicans, and sociological issues outside the scope of the Select Committee’s work,” Adler continued. “She won’t sign onto any ‘narrative’ that suggests Republicans are inherently racist or smears men and women in law enforcement, or suggests every American who believes God has blessed America is a white supremacist.”
Democrats are also not happy that the committee withdrew its subpoena for Trump.
“As you may know, the Select Committee has concluded its hearings, released its final report, and will very soon reach its end. In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena. Therefore, through this letter, I hereby formally withdraw the subpoena issued to former President Trump, and notify you that he is no longer obligated to comply or produce records in response to said subpoena. We appreciate your engagement with the Select Committee on this matter,” Chairman Thompson said.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), was previously asked by a reporter if the committee would be sending criminal referrals for the former president or others, and he responded by saying the committee does not have that authority.
“No, you know, we’re going to tell the facts. If the Department of Justice looks at it and assumes that there’s something that needs further review, I’m sure they’ll do it,” he said.
He was asked again and explained, “No, that’s not our job. Our job is to look at the facts and circumstances around January 6, what caused it, and make recommendations after that.”
