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A top House Republican who is leading the investigation into January 6, 2021, dropped a bombshell regarding the probe during an interview earlier this week.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told Just the News that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is prepared to expand the scope and “intensity” of the probe and increase the investigative resources committed to it.
“Speaker Johnson has been phenomenal in helping us with this,” Loudermilk, who chairs the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, told the outlet’s evening streaming TV show Wednesday evening. “He’s given me a commission to not only press forward in the method we’ve been doing but increase our intensity into this.”
Loudermilk took over the January 6 investigation when Republicans gained control of the House in January. He has been instrumental in releasing extensive security footage, internal documents, and testimonies that have significantly altered the public’s perception of the Capitol riot and its preceding events.
Loudermilk expressed his concern on Wednesday regarding the Jan. 6 committee’s failure to preserve crucial records, information, and video depositions, including communications with the Biden administration, despite being required to do so.
“We’ve uncovered a lot of evidence that is contrary to what they were telling us. There are not only flaws in their report; there are some flat-out lies in the report,” he said of the Democrats. “And the further we go down this path, the more that we’re uncovering. Probably one of the biggest things I think that we saw happen in the last year that we discovered had happened was the number of documents that were not preserved and were not passed along to our committee as the House Rules mandated.
“We are going to find these documents. And the reason it’s important is because I believe it’s what’s in those documents, which is why they don’t want us to see it,” he told the program.
The Georgia Republican also said that he recently briefed Johnson on the progress he’s made thus far in uncovering what the Democrat-led committee either allegedly altered or hid.
“When Speaker Mike Johnson came in, one of the first meetings that he had was with me, and I kind of gave him an update of where we are,” Loudermilk said. “He was so impressed with what he found out we had been working on. He said, ‘I will give you whatever resources or material you need to expand this investigation, dig deeper and get the truth out to the American people.'”
Recently, Johnson approved the release of over 40,000 hours of Capitol Hill security footage from the Jan. 6 riot, emphasizing the importance of “truth and transparency.” Subsequently, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) called for an investigation into the Jan. 6 committee, accusing it of selectively ignoring evidence.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both former congressional members, were the sole GOP representatives on the initial Jan. 6 committee. Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not allow two members chosen by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to participate, prompting McCarthy to withdraw all of his selected GOP members.
Also this week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an emergency motion filed by special counsel Jack Smith in a case that not only has major implications for former President Donald Trump but also hundreds of Americans arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
According to Politico, “The case, arising from the prosecution of a Jan. 6 defendant accused of pushing against police and inflaming a mob attempting to breach the Capitol, calls into question prosecutors’ handling of an Enron-era obstruction law to punish those who stormed Congress.”
The charge is “obstruction of an official proceeding,” and it is one of the felony counts that Trump himself faces in his so-called ‘election interference’ case filed by Smith. That charge alone carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
Smith wants the high court to rule on the question of whether Trump, who was still president at the time, is immune from prosecution.
