It’s widely acknowledged that although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has contended her special partisan committee on the events of last Jan. 6 at the Capitol is to “investigate” those actions, its real goal is to find some way that the vandalism of that day can be used against President Trump.
After all, he’s far and away the frontrunner in polling for those with possible 2024 presidential plans, and Democrats likely fear his return to the White House more than anything.
So the committee’s Democrats and two Trump-hating Republicans have subpoenaed witnesses, hinted at how awful the day was, suggested that the GOP is to blame, and more – even claiming despite the evidence that a police officer was killed by the violence.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in an interview recently that he would like to have a Watergate-style approach to the committee’s work.
“I have favored this strategy from the beginning,” he told an MSNBC show.
During the Watergate shows, the Daily Mail reported that an estimated 85% of the nation was tuned in at one point.
“I remember as a kid getting to watch a bit of the Watergate hearings, which were a daily spectacle that the whole country tuned into,” Raskin said. “If we can do that for, you know, a break-in in a couple of offices in the Watergate hotel, certainly, we can do it for a massive break-in into the Capitol of the United States, a storming, and a seizure essentially of our government offices, an interruption of the peaceful transfer of power.”
Actually, besides a bunch of vandalism and trespassing cases, most others of the hundreds of defendants from that day face counts of trying to assault police officers and the like.
While Democrats repeatedly claim it was an “insurrection,” that charge is conspicuous by its absence from cases. And there has developed a controversy over which of the agitators that day might have been in the employ of the federal government, since multiple “co-conspirators” in the criminal cases are facing no charges and the government refuses to identify its agents on scene.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chief of Pelosi’s partisan group, said the hearings could be in March or April, even though the dates haven’t been picked.
“We’re working on that,” he said in the Daily Mail report.
The report said the Democrats would aim to order high-profile names to appear, in order to gain the most exposure. Witnesses could be Vice President Mike Pence and Fox News host Sean Hannity, the report said.
Thompson said, “I would hope that he [Pence] would do the right thing and come forward and voluntarily talk to the committee. We have not formally asked. But if he offered, we’d gladly accept. Everything is under consideration.”
The committee, which has been challenged as illegitimate since it has not met the membership requirements of its authorizing resolution, and further has no members picked by the GOP, already has talked with 300 witnesses, issued 50 subpoenas and taken more than 35,000 pages of records.
Democrats have announced a list of events for the Jan. 6 anniversary on Thursday, including a “prayer” vigil.
WND has reported on a number of controversies surrounding Pelosi’s team.
Just this week, it was revealed that Republicans doing their own investigation – because Pelosi set up the House investigation as partisan by excluding members proposed by the minority GOP – say they have questions she needs to answer.
One of them is why she is continuing “to obstruct Republican access to House records relating to the security preparedness of the Capitol complex.”
“This double standard only adds to the evidence that Democrats are weaponizing events of January 6th against their political adversaries,” explained a letter to Pelosi. “If you are truly interested in working with Republicans to improve the Capitol security posture, I demand that you direct all House officers immediately to stop obstructing our oversight.
The letter to Pelosi is from Ranking Member Rodney Davis and was posted online:
A must-read letter to @SpeakerPelosi from Ranking Member @RodneyDavis ahead of 1/6. Still many unanswered questions from her office and why the House SAA & CAO continue to stonewall Republican requests for documents and records related to 1/6. pic.twitter.com/VOdSIA9nQk
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmnGOP) January 3, 2022
She has refused to answer other questions from the GOP, and apparently has instructed House staff to do the same.
The letter cites previous questions from Republicans, including about why a request from then-Chief of Capitol Police Steve Sund asking for National Guard support was denied, did then-Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving get instructions from her office before denying Sund’s request, and what guidance did Pelosi and her staff hand out leading up to Jan. 6.
“Like our requests to the House Sergeant-at-Arms, the House Chief Administrative Officer, and the House General Counsel – all of whom report directly to you – you have refused to respond. These records and communications are material to understanding the decision making by law enforcement officials before and during the violence of January 6th. Without these records, we cannot complete a thorough and comprehensive review.”
Instead, the letter charges, Pelosi hired a “partisan” figure with a record of comments suggesting “political bias” to “conduct a brief security review.”
Further, her partisan committee report “will exclude a review of your role in ensuring the proper House security preparations,” the letter charges.
“There is irony in the fact that at the same time House Democrats are holding witnesses in criminal contempt of Congress for raising genuine questions of legal privilege, you continue to obstruct Republican access to House records relating to the security preparedness of the Capitol complex on January 6th, 2021.”
The GOP is doing its investigation because Pelosi’s Jan. 6 committee is made up of Democrats and two members of the GOP who actively have worked against President Trump. She refused to seat several GOP members nominated by the GOP.
The committee also is facing lawsuits, legal challenges, or just plain opposition from Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, the two Republicans Pelosi barred from the committee.
Other actions have come from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, broadcaster Alex Jones, and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
Others in that “flood” of litigation are John Eastman, a lawyer who has sued to protect his phone records, Cleta Mitchell, a prominent conservative attorney who joined Trump’s early January call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander.
There’s also a court case from freelance photojournalist Amy Harris as well as cases brought by Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon.
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
