Select committee | |
---|---|
Active United States House of Representatives 117th Congress | |
History | |
Formed | July 1, 2021 |
Leadership | |
Chair | Bennie Thompson (D) Since July 1, 2021 |
Vice chair | Liz Cheney (R) Since September 2, 2021 |
Structure | |
Seats | 9 |
Political parties | Majority (7)
|
Jurisdiction | |
Purpose | To investigate the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 |
Senate counterpart | None |
Website | |
january6th | |
The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,[1] which was the culmination of then-President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election in part by telling many falsehoods about it instead of conceding defeat to Joe Biden.
The committee has said that Trump knew he did not win the election and was thus perpetrating a fraud, and it has referred to a "criminal conspiracy" that led to the attack on the Capitol.[2][3]
The committee was formed through a largely party-line vote on July 1, 2021. Its membership was a point of significant political contention. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who both voted in favor to impeach Trump,[4][5] were the only two House Republicans to serve on the committee, and the Republican National Committee eventually censured them for their participation.[6]
By May 2022, the committee had interviewed more than 1,000 people.[7] Some members of Trump's inner circle cooperated with the committee, while others defied it.[8] Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were indicted by federal grand juries for refusing to testify; Bannon has been convicted.[9] Congress also held Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino in criminal contempt for refusing to testify, but the Justice Department said it would not prosecute them.[10][11]
Majority | Minority |
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In July 2021, Thompson announced the senior staff for the committee. They included:[13]
In August 2021, Denver Riggleman, a former U.S. House representative, and Joe Maher, a principal deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, were hired as staffers,[14] and Timothy J. Heaphy was appointed as the committee's chief investigative counsel.[15]
2021 United States Capitol attack |
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Timeline of events |
Background |
Participants |
Aftermath |
In the aftermath of the 2021 United States Capitol attack, the proposal to form a bicameral commission failed due to a filibuster from Republicans in the Senate.[16] In late May, when it had become apparent that the filibuster would not be overcome, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that she would appoint a select committee to investigate the events as a fallback option.[17][18][19][20]
On June 30, 2021, the resolution to form the committee passed by a vote of 222 to 190, with all Democratic members and two Republican members, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, voting in favor. Sixteen Republican members did not vote.[21] The resolution empowered Pelosi to appoint eight members to the committee, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy could appoint five members "in consultation" with Pelosi.[22] Pelosi indicated that she would name a Republican as one of her eight appointees.[23]
On July 1, Pelosi appointed eight members, seven Democrats and one Republican, Liz Cheney (R-WY); Bennie Thompson (D-MS) would serve as committee chair.[24] On July 19, McCarthy announced the five members he would recommend as the minority on the select committee. He recommended that Jim Banks (R-IN) serve as Ranking Member, and minority members be Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), and Troy Nehls (R-TX).[25] Banks, Jordan, and Nehls voted to overturn the Electoral College results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Banks and Jordan had also signed onto the Supreme Court case Texas v. Pennsylvania to invalidate the ballots of voters in four states.[26]
On July 21, Thompson stated in an interview that he would investigate Trump as part of the inquiry into Capitol attack.[27] Hours later, Pelosi said in a statement that she had informed McCarthy that she would reject the recommendations of Jordan and Banks, citing concerns for the investigation's integrity and relevant actions and statements made by the two members. She approved the recommendations of the other three.[28] McCarthy then pulled all of his picks for the committee and stated that he would not appoint anyone on the committee unless all five of his choices were approved.[29][30]
After McCarthy rescinded his recommendations, Pelosi announced on July 25 that she had appointed Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to the committee.[31][32] Kinzinger was one of the ten House Republicans who voted for Trump's second impeachment.[33] Pelosi also hired a Republican, former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), as an outside committee staffer or advisor.[14] Cheney voiced her support and pushed for both of their involvement.[33]
On February 4, 2022, the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney and Kinzinger, which it had never before done to any sitting congressional Republican. The resolution formally drops "all support of them as members of the Republican Party", arguing that they are, through their work on the January 6 House Committee, hurting Republican prospects in the midterm elections.[6][34]
The select committee's work is ongoing. Its investigative teams each focus on a specific area like funding, individuals' motivations, organizational coalitions, and how Trump may have pressured other politicians.[35] The investigation commenced with public hearings on July 27, 2021 when four police officers testified. As of the end of 2021, it had interviewed more than 300 witnesses and obtained more than 35,000 documents.[36] By May 2022, those totals had surpassed 1,000 witnesses and 125,000 records.[2] Some interviews were recorded.[37] While the investigation is still in progress, the select committee publicly communicates some, but not all, of the information it finds.
The select committee has split their multi-pronged investigation into four color-coded teams.[38][39] The teams consist of:
Ultimately, the select committee's findings may be used to inform new legislation. For example, in October 2021, committee members were already collaborating to draft a bill that would clarify the procedures for certifying presidential elections.[40] Election certification is governed by the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
The select committee's findings may also be used in arguments to hold individuals, notably Donald Trump,[2] legally accountable. Possible criminal charges for Trump are obstruction of the electoral certification proceedings, which could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years;[41] "dereliction of duty" in not stopping the riot,[42] especially given testimony from his inner circle who say he was repeatedly advised to stop it;[43] and seditious conspiracy.[44][45][46] Other Republicans could face charges of wire fraud for telling lies in their fundraising efforts.[47][48]
A conviction, in turn, may be used to bar individuals from running for office in the future, as insurrectionists are constitutionally ineligible to hold public office. It is, however, unclear who enforces that.[49][50] In January 2022, lawyers challenged Representative Madison Cawthorn's eligibility to run for reelection,[51][52] and, in March 2022, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's eligibility was similarly challenged.[53]
The select committee's work may also aid the state of Georgia if it decides to prosecute Trump for solicitation of election fraud. On May 2, 2022, Fulton County's District Attorney Fani Willis opened a special grand jury to consider criminal charges.[54]
The Department of Justice has the authority to open criminal investigations and bring criminal charges against political leaders.[55] It initially focused on prosecuting rioters and did not openly ask the House select committee to halt its investigation into Trump's inner circle.[56] Later, however, the Justice Department also investigated Trump's allies. In March 2022, it had reportedly seated several grand juries, including one regarding the fake electors scheme, to help prosecutors decide whether to bring charges against Trump's inner circle.[57][58] Among those high-level investigations:
On July 26, 2022, it was reported that the Justice Department's criminal probe was examining Trump's actions.[64] On August 4, 2022, it was reported for the first time that Trump's lawyers were speaking directly to the Justice Department.[65] Attorney General Merrick Garland said "everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible" would be held accountable.[64] On August 8, 2022, the FBI raided Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago. They were reportedly looking for classified documents that Trump had improperly removed from the White House instead of sending them to the National Archives.[66] Regarding Trump himself, the Justice Department was probing the months-long efforts to falsely declare that the election was rigged, including pressure on the Justice Department and the fake-electors scheme, as well as the events of January 6 itself, namely, seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct a government proceeding.[67]
It was long anticipated that the House select committee would formally recommend that the Justice Department bring criminal charges.[68] At this point, however, it may not. Congressional committees typically are supposed to stick to legislative goals.[69] Congress does sometimes recommend criminal charges, but their "recommendation" or "referral" has no legal force in itself,[70] and the Justice Department is already investigating anyway.
The select committee is sharing certain information with the Justice Department: for example, the committee's suspicion of witness tampering in Trump's placing of a phone call to a witness.[71]
However, the committee has not yet fulfilled the Justice Department's request that it turn over all its interview transcripts. The Justice Department sent a letter on April 20, 2022 asking for transcripts of past and future interviews. Thompson, the committee chair, told reporters he did not intend to give the Justice Department "full access to our product" especially when "we haven't completed our own work." Instead, the select committee negotiated for a partial information exchange.[72] On June 15, the Justice Department repeated its request. They gave an example of a problem they had encountered: The trial of the five Proud Boys indicted for seditious conspiracy had been rescheduled for the end of 2022 because the prosecutors and the defendants' counsel didn't want to start the trial without the relevant interview transcripts.[73] On July 12, 2022, the committee announced it was negotiating with the Justice Department about the procedure for information-sharing and that the committee had "started producing information" related to the Justice Department's request for transcripts. Representative Thompson told CNN that they would likely "establish a procedure to look at some of the material" later in July after the eighth public hearing.[74]
In September 2021, the select committee subpoenaed former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows initially cooperated but ultimately did not provide a complete set of requested documents.[75] On December 14, 2021, the full House voted to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress.[76]
While the Justice Department decided not to charge Meadows for the contempt charge,[77] they do believe the subpoena was justified. On July 15, 2022, at the request of U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols, the Justice Department filed an amicus brief[78] regarding Meadow's claim of immunity from the congressional subpoena.[79] The Justice Department said that Meadows had "qualified", not "absolute", immunity given that "the President's term of office has ended" and that Congress had made "a sufficient showing of need" for the information.[80][81]
Before Meadows stopped cooperating, he provided thousands of emails and text messages[82][75] revealing how certain people participated in efforts to overturn the election results:
Meadows also participated in a call with a Freedom Caucus group including Rudy Giuliani, Representative Jim Jordan, and Representative Scott Perry during which they planned to encourage Trump supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6.[89]
Meadows also exchanged post-election text messages with Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which they expressed support of Trump's claims of election fraud. On November 5, in the first of 29 text messages, Ginni Thomas sent to Meadows a link to a YouTube video about the election.[90] She emailed Arizona lawmakers on November 9 to encourage them to choose different electors, exchanged emails with John Eastman, and attended the rally on January 6.[91][92]
Some of the communications revealed Trump allies who privately expressed disagreement with the events of January 6 while defending Trump in public:
In mid-2022, CNN spoke to over a dozen people who had texted Meadows that day, and all of them said they believed that Trump should have tried to stop the attack.[95]
One of the most revealing documents provided by Meadows was a PowerPoint presentation[96][97] describing a strategy for overturning the election results. The presentation had been distributed by Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel (now owning a bar in Texas)[98] who specialized in psychological operations and who later became a Trump campaign associate. A 36-page version appeared to have been created on January 5,[99][96] and Meadows received a version that day.[100][101][102] He eventually provided a 38-page version to the committee.[99] It recommended that Trump declare a national security emergency to delay the January 6 electoral certification, invalidate all ballots cast by machine, and order the military to seize and recount all paper ballots.[100][101] (Meadows claims he personally did not act on this plan.[100]) Waldron was associated with former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn and other military-intelligence veterans who played key roles in spreading false information to allege the election had been stolen from Trump.[103][98] Politico reported in January 2022 that Bernard Kerik had testified to the committee that Waldron also originated the idea of a military seizure of voting machines, which was included in a draft executive order dated December 16.[104][105] The next month, Politico published emails between Waldron, Flynn, Kerik, Washington attorney Katherine Friess and Texas entrepreneur Russell Ramsland that included another draft executive order dated December 16. That draft was nearly identical to the draft Politico had previously released and embedded metadata indicated it had been created by One America News anchor Christina Bobb. An attorney, Bobb had also been present at the Willard Hotel command center.[106][107]
One of the main challenges to the committee's investigation was Trump's use of legal tactics to try to block the release of the White House communication records held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).[108] He succeeded in delaying the release of the documents for about five months. The committee received the documents on January 20, 2022.[109][110]
Some of the documents had been previously torn up by Trump and taped back together by NARA staff.[111] Trump is said to have routinely shredded and flushed records by his own hand, as well as to have asked staff to place them in burn bags, throughout his presidency.[112][113] Additionally, as the presidential diarist testified to the committee in March 2022, the Oval Office did not send the diarist detailed information about Trump's daily activities on January 5 and 6, 2021.[114]
Trump's phone records from the day of the attack, as provided by NARA to the committee, have a gap of seven-and-a-half hours that spans the time when the Capitol was being attacked. It is not that pages were removed from his call logs; rather, no calls during this period were ever logged,[114] suggesting he was using a "burner" cell phone during that time.[115] He is said to have routinely used burner phones during his presidency.[116] The committee had not subpoenaed his personal phone records as of July 2022.[117]
The committee began its request for the NARA records in August 2021.[118][119] Trump asserted executive privilege over the documents.[120] Current president Joe Biden rejected that claim,[121][122] as did a federal judge (who noted that Trump was no longer president),[123] the DC Circuit Court of Appeals,[124] and the U.S. Supreme Court.[125][126] While the request for NARA documents was being litigated, the committee agreed to a Biden administration request that they forgo obtaining certain documents from NARA relating to sensitive national security matters that had no bearing on events of January 6.[127]
Another difficulty is that Trump has told Republican leaders not to cooperate with the committee.[128][129][130][131] Messages intended to pressure witnesses may constitute witness tampering, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.[132] While hundreds of people have testified voluntarily,[133] the committee has also had to issue dozens of subpoenas[134] to legally compel certain uncooperative individuals to testify. Some people who were subpoenaed nevertheless refused to testify: Roger Stone and John Eastman pleaded their Fifth Amendment rights, while Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows were found in contempt of Congress. In December 2021, Michael Flynn sued to block a subpoena for his phone records and to delay his testimony, though a federal judge dismissed his suit within a day.[135]
Soon after the attack on the Capitol, the Secret Service assigned new phones.[136] In February 2021, the office of Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, a Trump appointee, learned that text messages of Secret Service agents had been lost. He considered sending data specialists to attempt to retrieve the messages, but a decision was made against it.[137] In June 2021, DHS asked for text messages from 24 individuals—including the heads for Trump and Pence security, Robert Engel and Tim Giebels—and did not receive them. In October 2021, DHS considered publicizing the Secret Service's delays.[138][139] On July 26, 2022, Chairman Thompson, in his capacity as Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Carolyn Maloney, Chair of the House Oversight & Reforms Committee, jointly wrote to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency about Cuffari's failure to report the lost text messages and asked CIGIE chair Allison Lerner to replace Cuffari with a new Inspector General who could investigate the matter.[140] Additionally, renewed calls to have President Biden dismiss Cuffari have started gaining traction, with Senator Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting Attorney General Garland to investigate the missing text messages. However, as of July 2022, it is unknown if President Biden will fire Cuffari as he made a campaign promise to never fire an inspector general during his tenure as POTUS.
On August 1, 2022, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson reiterated calls for Cuffari to step down due to a "lack of transparency" that could be "jeopardizing the integrity" of crucial investigations regarding the missing Secret Service text messages.[141] That same day, an official inside the DHS inspector general's office told Politico that Cuffari and his staff are "uniquely unqualified to lead an Inspector General’s office, and ... The crucial oversight mission of the DHS OIG has been compromised."[142] Congress also obtained a July 2021 e-mail, from deputy inspector general Thomas Kait, who told senior DHS officials there was no longer a need for any Secret Service phone records or text messages. Efforts to collect communications related to Jan. 6 were therefore shutdown by Kait just six weeks after the internal DHS investigation began. The Guardian wrote that "Taken together, the new revelations appear to show that the chief watchdog for the Secret Service and the DHS took deliberate steps to stop the retrieval of texts it knew were missing, and then sought to hide the fact that it had decided not to pursue that evidence."[143]
On August 2, 2022, CNN reported that relevant text messages from January 6, 2021 were also deleted from the phones of Trump-appointed officials at the Pentagon, despite the fact that FOIA requests were filed days after the attack on the Capitol.[144][145]
Trump's Save America PAC has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawyers representing over a dozen witnesses called by the committee. It is not illegal to pay someone else's legal fees, but it raises the question of why Trump would do so and what kind of influence he might have over those people's testimony.[146]
The American Conservative Union is providing legal defense funds for some people who resist the committee. The organization says it only assists people who do not cooperate with the committee and who oppose its mission, according to chairman Matt Schlapp.[147]
Though the Republican National Committee has long insisted that the committee is invalid and should not be allowed to investigate, a federal judge found on May 1, 2022 that the committee's power is legitimate.[148]
Bill Stepien, Donald Trump's final campaign manager, cancelled his plans to testify for the second hearing, under subpoena, an hour before it started, due to his wife's going into labor, resulting in a delay of 45 minutes while the Select Committee scrambled to rearrange its presentation, with Bill Stepien's lawyer to read a statement for him.[149][150] Instead, they used clips of his deposition.[151]
Main article: United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack public hearings |
The House select committee began its investigation with a preliminary public hearing on July 27, 2021 called "The Law Enforcement Experience on January 6th".[152][153] Capitol and District of Columbia police testified, describing their personal experiences on the day of the attack, and graphic video footage was shown.[154]
Part of this section is transcluded from Public hearings of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. (edit | history) |
On June 9, 2022, the Committee began holding live televised public hearings.[155] During this first hearing of 2022, the chair and vice-chair (Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, respectively) said that President Donald Trump tried to stay in power even though he lost the 2020 presidential election. Thompson said it was a "coup".[156] Cheney said the hearings would present evidence showing that Trump used a seven-part plan, culminating in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The committee has been calling live witnesses, most of whom are Republicans, and some are Trump loyalists.[157][158] They testified under oath. The committee is also making extensive use of video from a number of sources, including sworn deposition testimony obtained earlier. During this hearing, the committee shared footage of the attack, discussed involvement of the Proud Boys, and included testimony from a documentary filmmaker and a member of the Capitol Police.
The second hearing focused on evidence showing that Trump knew he lost and that most of his inner circle knew claims of fraud did not have merit. William Barr testified that Trump had "become detached from reality" because he continued to promote conspiracy theories and pushed the stolen election myth without "interest in what the actual facts were."[159][160]
The third hearing examined how Trump and others pressured Vice President Mike Pence to selectively discount electoral votes and overturn the election by unconstitutional means, using John Eastman's fringe legal theories as justification.[138]
The fourth hearing included appearances by election officials from Arizona and Georgia who testified they were pressured to "find votes" for Trump and change results in their jurisdictions. The committee revealed attempts to organize fake slates of alternate electors and established that "Trump had a direct and personal role in this effort."[161][162]
The fifth hearing focused on Trump's pressure campaign on the Justice Department to rubber stamp his narrative of a stolen election, the insistence on numerous debunked election fraud conspiracy theories, requests to seize voting machines, and Trump's effort to install Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.[163]
The sixth hearing's exclusive witness was Cassidy Hutchinson, top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.[164] Conversations within Trump's inner circle revealed White House officials knew, days in advance of January 6, that violence was possible. Her testimony showed Trump knew supporters at the Ellipse rally were armed with AR-15s and other weapons and that he wanted less stringent security checks at his speech. Trump planned to join the crowd at the Capitol and became irate when the Secret Service refused his request. Closing the hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney presented evidence that witness tampering may have occurred.[165]
The seventh hearing showed how Roger Stone and Michael Flynn connected Trump to domestic militias like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys that helped coordinate the attack.[166][167][168]
The eighth hearing presented evidence and details of Trump's refusal to call off the attack on the Capitol, despite several hours of repeated pleas from numerous officials and insiders. According to The New York Times, this final July hearing focused on evidence and witness testimony that highlighted two significant positions that the select committee wanted to communicate to the American people. First, Rep. Liz Cheney made the case that Trump should never hold office again, asking: "Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?" Secondly, there were urgent calls for legally-binding federal investigations into the actions of the former president and his associates: "If there is no accountability for Jan. 6, for every part of this scheme, I fear that we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy," Rep. Bennie Thompson said. "There must be stiff consequences for those responsible."[169]
On July 22, 2022, The New York Times presented a detailed summary of all hearings to date.[169]
Following public hearings in June and July 2022, the committee may release an interim report.[170] The committee is expected to hire a writer to help produce its final report, which will be presented in a multimedia format,[171][170] and to release the report in September 2022 before the midterm elections.[172]
Some people testify and provide documents voluntarily, while others are legally compelled by subpoenas.[401][134][402] The committee does not always publicly announce the subpoenas it issues.[82] One notable subpoena requested the telephone records of more than 100 people,[403] some of whom sued.[404]
On May 12, 2022, the committee subpoenaed five House Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.[347] Representative Thompson, the committee chair, had told NBC's Meet the Press on January 2, 2022 that they would have "no reluctance" to subpoena sitting members of Congress once they determined they had the authority.[405][406] On July 15, 2022, the committee subpoenaed the U.S. Secret Service. This was the first time it had subpoenaed an agency of the executive branch. The subpoena was issued after it became known the Service had erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, after the DHS inspector general had requested them for an after-action review of the Service involving the January 6 attack. The Service said the deletions were part of a long-planned "device migration," though the inspector general told committee members that the Service was not being fully cooperative.[386]
In May 2022, the committee reportedly was still debating whether to call Trump and Pence,[407] although Thompson had told reporters on April 4 they would not bother with this, especially having already confirmed important information through Pence's former aides Marc Short and Greg Jacob.[331]
Name | Role | Subpoenaed | Deposition | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|---|
Telecom carriers | call detail records for more than 100 people | summer/fall 2021[246] | N/A | N/A |
Mark Meadows | former White House chief of staff | September 23, 2021 | orig. October 15, 2021 November 12, 2021 |
did not appear;[189] later cooperated, then stopped[408][244] and sued[409] |
Daniel Scavino | former White House deputy chief of staff for communications | September 23, 2021 | orig. October 15, 2021 postponed six times[410][323] |
|
Kash Patel | former chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller | September 23, 2021 | orig. October 14, 2021 December 9, 2021 |
appeared[411][412][413] |
Stephen Bannon | former Trump adviser | September 23, 2021 | October 14, 2021 | indicted[230] |
Amy Kremer | founder and chair of Women For America First; mother of Kylie Kremer | September 29, 2021 | October 29, 2021[414] | |
Kylie Kremer | founder and executive director of Women For America First; daughter of Amy Kremer | September 29, 2021 | October 29, 2021[414] | |
Cynthia Chafian | submitted the first permit application on behalf of WFAF for the January 6 rally, and founder of the Eighty Percent Coalition | September 29, 2021 | October 28, 2021[402] | |
Caroline Wren | "VIP Advisor" for January 6, per rally permit | September 29, 2021 | October 26, 2021[402] | |
Maggie Mulvaney | "VIP Lead" for January 6, per rally permit | September 29, 2021 | October 26, 2021[402] | |
Justin Caporale | Event Strategies, Inc.; "Project Manager" for January 6, per rally permit | September 29, 2021 | October 25, 2021[402] | |
Tim Unes | Event Strategies, Inc.; "Stage Manager" for January 6, per rally permit | September 29, 2021 | October 25, 2021[402] | |
Megan Powers | MPowers Consulting LLC; "Operations Manager for Scheduling and Guidance" for January 6, per rally permit | September 29, 2021 | October 21, 2021[402] | |
Hannah Salem Stone | logistics for rally | September 29, 2021 | October 22, 2021[402] | |
Lyndon Brentnall | "on-site supervisor" for the rally; owner of a security company | September 29, 2021 | October 22, 2021[402] | |
Katrina Pierson | national spokesperson for the 2016 Trump campaign | September 29, 2021 | November 3, 2021[402] | |
Ali Alexander | connected to "Stop the Steal" rally permit | October 7, 2021 | October 29, 2021[402] | reportedly cooperating as of April 2022[415] |
Nathan Martin | connected to "Stop the Steal" rally permit | October 7, 2021 | October 28, 2021[402] | |
Stop the Steal LLC | organization; George B. Coleman, "custodian of records," will be deposed | October 7, 2021 | N/A[416] | |
Jeffrey Clark | former DOJ official | October 13, 2021 | October 29, 2021[402] | appeared November 5; refused to testify, invoking executive privilege;[417] will be rescheduled in 2022 when he is no longer ill[418] |
William Stepien | Trump 2020 campaign manager | November 8, 2021 | December 13, 2021[402] | |
Jason Miller | Trump campaign senior advisor | November 8, 2021 | December 10, 2021[402] | |
John Eastman | conservative lawyer and former professor | November 8, 2021 | December 8, 2021[402] | Fifth Amendment (refused to testify)[419] |
Michael Flynn | former Trump national security advisor | November 8, 2021 | orig. December 6, 2021 postponed[420][402] |
Fifth Amendment (refused to testify) when he appeared March 10, after unsuccessfully suing to invalidate the subpoena[421][404][422] |
Angela McCallum | Trump campaign executive assistant | November 8, 2021 | November 30, 2021[402][423] | |
Bernard Kerik | present at the meetings at the Willard Hotel | November 8, 2021 | December 3, 2021[402] | appeared voluntarily on January 13, 2022[424] |
Nicholas Luna | personal assistant to Trump | November 9, 2021 | orig. December 6, 2021 postponed[420][402] |
|
Molly Michael | Oval Office operations coordinator | November 9, 2021 | December 2, 2021[402] | |
Ben Williamson | senior advisor to chief of staff Mark Meadows | November 9, 2021 | December 2, 2021[402] | |
Christopher Liddell | deputy chief of staff | November 9, 2021 | November 30, 2021[402] | |
John McEntee | White House personnel director | November 9, 2021 | December 15, 2021[402] | |
Keith Kellogg | national security adviser to Pence | November 9, 2021 | December 1, 2021[402] | testified[425] |
Kayleigh McEnany | former White House Press Secretary | November 9, 2021 | December 3, 2021[402] | appeared on January 12[426] |
Stephen Miller | senior advisor for policy | November 9, 2021 | December 14, 2021[402] | |
Cassidy Hutchinson | special assistant for legislative affairs | November 9, 2021 | December 1, 2021[402] | testified four times behind closed doors,[427] including February 23 and March 7, 2022,[428] before speaking at the committee's sixth public hearing on June 28, 2022 |
Kenneth Klukowski | senior counsel to assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark | November 9, 2021 | November 29, 2021[402] | |
Alex Jones | InfoWars host | November 22, 2021 | December 18, 2021[429] | Fifth Amendment (refused to testify)[430] |
Roger Stone | Republican operative | November 22, 2021 | December 17, 2021 | Fifth Amendment (refused to testify)[431] |
Duston Stockton | Stop the Steal organizer | November 22, 2021 | December 14, 2021[432] | |
Jennifer Lawrence | Stop the Steal organizer | November 22, 2021 | December 15, 2021 | |
Taylor Budowich | Trump spokesman; communications director of Save America PAC | November 22, 2021 | December 16, 2021 | testified; sued to block release of financial records, but the committee had already received them[433][434] |
Oath Keepers | militia organization | November 23, 2021[435] | N/A | |
Proud Boys | far-right organization | November 23, 2021 | December 7, 2021 | |
Stewart Rhodes | Oath Keepers leader | November 23, 2021 | December 14, 2021 | indicted by federal prosecutors; charged with seditious conspiracy;[436] trial set for July 2022[437] |
Enrique Tarrio | Proud Boys leader | November 23, 2021 | December 15, 2021 | indicted by federal prosecutors; charged with conspiracy[436] and sedition[438] |
Robert Patrick Lewis | 1st Amendment Praetorian[439] | November 23, 2021 | December 16, 2021 | |
Marc Short | Pence's chief of staff | November 2021 | January 26, 2022[440] | testified; on December 6, 2021, it was reported he had been subpoenaed "weeks" earlier[441] and may have received a "friendly" subpoena to encourage cooperation.[442][443] |
Max Miller | former Trump aide | December 10, 2021 | January 6, 2022[444][445] | |
Robert Peede Jr. | former Trump deputy assistant | December 10, 2021 | January 7, 2022[444][445] | |
Brian Jack | former Trump director of political affairs | December 10, 2021 | January 10, 2022[444][445] | |
Bryan Lewis | Trump aide who helped plan rally | December 10, 2021 | January 4, 2022[444][445] | |
Ed Martin | Trump ally who helped plan rally | December 10, 2021 | January 5, 2022[444][445] | |
Kimberly Fletcher | ties to "Moms for America," helped plan rallies | December 10, 2021 | January 4, 2022[444][445] | |
Phil Waldron | author of the PowerPoint presentation titled "Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN" | December 16, 2021 | January 17, 2022[446] | |
Andy Surabian | adviser to Donald Trump Jr. | January 11, 2022[434] | January 31, 2022[447] | |
Arthur Schwartz | adviser to Donald Trump Jr. | January 11, 2022[434] | February 1, 2022[448] | |
Ross Worthington | former White House official; helped Trump draft his January 6 rally speech | January 11, 2022[434][449] | February 2, 2022[450] | |
Meta, Alphabet, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit | Social media companies | January 13, 2022[449] | N/A | |
Rudy Giuliani | former Trump personal attorney | January 18, 2022[451] | orig. February 8, 2021 postponed[452][453] |
|
Sidney Powell | former Trump attorney | January 18, 2022[451] | February 8, 2022[454] | sued to block release of phone records[455] |
Jenna Ellis | former Trump attorney | January 18, 2022[451] | February 8, 2022[456] | |
Boris Epshteyn | former Trump advisor | January 18, 2022[451] | February 8, 2022[457] | |
Eric Trump | son of Trump | reported January 18, 2022 | phone metadata[458] | records obtained[458] |
Kimberly Guilfoyle | Trump advisor, fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. | reported January 18, 2022 | phone metadata[458] | records obtained[458] |
Nick Fuentes | Groypers leader, White Nationalist Activist, podcast host | January 19, 2022[459] | February 9, 2022[460] | |
Patrick Casey | Far-right activist | January 19, 2022[459] | February 9, 2022[461] | |
Nancy Cottle | Listed as chairperson for Arizona on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 16, 2022[462] | |
Loraine B. Pellegrino | Listed as secretary for Arizona on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 16, 2022[462] | |
David Shafer | Listed as chairperson for Georgia on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 21, 2022[462] | |
Shawn Still | Listed as secretary for Georgia on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 21, 2022[462] | |
Kathy Berden | Listed as chairperson for Michigan on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 22, 2022[462] | |
Mayra Rodriguez | Listed as secretary for Michigan on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 22, 2022[462] | |
Jewll Powdrell | Listed as chairperson for New Mexico on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 23, 2022[462] | |
Deborah W. Maestas | Listed as secretary for New Mexico on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 23, 2022[462] | |
Michael J. McDonald | Listed as chairperson for Nevada on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 24, 2022[462] | |
James DeGraffenreid | Listed as secretary for Nevada on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 24, 2022[462] | |
Bill Bachenberg | Listed as chairperson for Pennsylvania on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 25, 2022[462] | |
Lisa Patton | Listed as secretary for Pennsylvania on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 25, 2022[462] | |
Andrew Hitt | Listed as chairperson for Wisconsin on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 28, 2022[462] | |
Kelly Ruh | Listed as secretary for Wisconsin on false slate of Trump electors | January 28, 2022[303] | February 28, 2022[462] | |
Judd Deere | Trump deputy White House press secretary | January 28, 2022[304] | ||
Peter Navarro | Trump economic advisor | February 9, 2022[309] | March 2, 2022[463] | indicted[11] |
Laura Cox | Former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman | February 15, 2022[464] | March 8, 2022 | |
Kelli Ward | Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman | February 15, 2022[464] | March 8, 2022 | |
Gary Michael Brown | Deputy Director of Election Day Operations for 2020 Trump campaign | February 15, 2022[464] | March 9, 2022 | |
Douglas V. Mastriano | Pennsylvania state senator, planned false slate of Trump electors | February 15, 2022[464] | March 10, 2022 | appeared briefly on August 9, but didn't answer questions;[465] complied with request for documents; used campaign donations to pay lawyer[466] |
Michael A. Roman | Director of Election Day Operations for 2020 Trump campaign | February 15, 2022[464] | March 14, 2022 | |
Mark Finchem | Arizona state legislator, "Stop the Steal" backer | February 15, 2022[464] | March 15, 2022 | |
Salesforce.com | Software company, RNC's fundraising platform | February 23, 2022[467] | March 16, 2022 | RNC unsuccessfully sued to block subpoena[468][343] |
Kenneth Chesebro | Attorney who worked on efforts to overturn election | March 1, 2022[469] | March 22, 2022 | |
Christina Bobb | Attorney who worked on efforts to overturn election, OANN host | March 1, 2022[469] | March 23, 2022 | |
Kurt Olsen | Attorney who worked on efforts to overturn election | March 1, 2022[469] | March 24, 2022 | sued to block subpoena March 24, 2022[470] |
Phill Kline | Attorney who worked on efforts to overturn election, OANN host | March 1, 2022[469] | March 25, 2022 | |
Cleta Mitchell | Attorney who worked on efforts to overturn election | March 1, 2022[469] | March 28, 2022 | |
Katherine Friess | Attorney who worked on efforts to overturn election | March 1, 2022[469] | March 29, 2022 | |
Kimberly Guilfoyle | Trump advisor, fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. | March 3, 2022[317] | March 15, 2022[471] | |
Scott Perry | Representative for Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district | May 12, 2022[472] | May 26, 2022 | |
Andy Biggs | Representative for Arizona's 5th congressional district | May 12, 2022[472] | May 26, 2022 | |
Jim Jordan | Representative for Ohio's 4th congressional district | May 12, 2022[472] | May 27, 2022 | |
Kevin McCarthy | House Minority Leader | May 12, 2022[472] | May 31, 2022 | |
Mo Brooks | Representative for Alabama's 5th congressional district, spoke at rally | May 12, 2022[472] | May 31, 2022 | |
Pat Cipollone | White House Counsel | June 29, 2022[473] | July 6, 2022 | scheduled for closed-door, videotaped testimony on July 8, 2022[379] |
U.S. Secret Service | Department of Homeland Security agency; erased text messages |
July 15, 2022[474] | N/A | |
Patrick Philbin | White House deputy counsel under Pat Cipollone | reported August 3, 2022[475] |
According to several reports, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had warned Republican members that if they allowed Speaker Pelosi to appoint them to the select committee, they would be stripped of all their other committee assignments and should not expect to receive any future ones from Pelosi. In an interview with Forbes, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said "Who gives a shit" and added, "When you've got people who say crazy stuff and you're not gonna make that threat, but you make that threat to truth-tellers, you've lost any credibility."[476]
House Leader McCarthy called the rejection of his initial recommendations "unprecedented" in a phone call with Pelosi. In a press conference, he labeled her a "lame duck speaker" out to destroy the institution. The Freedom Caucus pushed for McCarthy to file a motion to vacate the speakership, and punish Cheney and Kinzinger for accepting their appointments to the committee.[477][478] McCarthy later dubbed them "Pelosi Republicans."[173][174] Republicans also stated that if they won the House majority in the 2022 midterm elections, they would come after Democratic committee assignments, targeting Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar.[478] Steve Scalise stated that Pelosi had removed any credibility from the committee for rejecting their recommended members and opted instead for a political narrative.[478] Republicans Scott Perry, Chip Roy, and Kelly Armstrong expressed their disdain for both Cheney and Kinzinger and questioned their loyalty to the House Republican Conference, pushing for them to be stripped of their committee assignments.[173] Jim Banks and Mike Rogers stated that the two GOP committee members would be stuck to Pelosi's narrative of events.[173] Cheney and Kinzinger both dismissed comments from their colleagues.[173]
After Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's picks for the committee and appointed Adam Schiff, The Wall Street Journal editorial board criticized her; while acknowledging that McCarthy's picks were partisan, it claimed that Schiff had "lied repeatedly about the evidence concerning the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia." The editorial board posited, "if Mrs. Pelosi thinks the evidence for her conclusion is persuasive, why would she not want to have it tested against the most aggressive critics?"[479] On the other hand, the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board said: "Pelosi's chief mistake was not also rejecting Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, who, like Jordan, Banks and a majority of House Republicans, voted to overturn the election on the day of the insurrection. No serious investigation of the riot can be undertaken by those who shared the goals of the rioters." It added that "McCarthy and company killed an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the attack even though the Republicans' top negotiator agreed to the terms."[480]
Some House Republicans—including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Representative Jim Jordan—said they did not watch the committee's first hearing on July 27, 2021. Representative Matthew M. Rosendale said he watched Representative Liz Cheney speak (and was "quite disappointed") but did not watch the police officers' testimony. Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik would not say whether she watched.[481]
In late August 2021, after the committee asked telecommunications and social media companies to retain certain records, McCarthy declared that if the companies "turn over private information" to the House committee, then the companies are "in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States", and that a future Republican legislative majority will hold the companies "fully accountable".[482] In response to McCarthy's comment, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint on September 3 with the chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics. CREW noted that the subpoena was legally valid and claimed that McCarthy was illegally obstructing the investigation insofar as he was "threatening retaliation" against the telecommunications companies.[483] Eleven House Republicans who were associated with the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally sent a September 3 letter to thirteen telecommunications companies stating they "do not consent to the release of confidential call records or data" and threatened legal action against what they asserted were unconstitutional subpoenas.[484][485][486][487]
During a September 2 television interview, McCarthy was asked about "how deeply [Trump] was involved," to which he replied that the FBI and Senate committees had found "no involvement."[488] He and other Republicans had cited an exclusive Reuters report that unnamed current and former law enforcement officials said the FBI had found "scant evidence" of an organized plot to overturn the election. In a September 4 statement, Thompson and Cheney said the committee had queried executive branch agencies and congressional committees investigating the matter and "it's been made clear to us that reports of such a conclusion are baseless."[489][490]
On October 16, The Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson criticized the committee's glacial progress, stating that "I don't believe that they're pursuing this with the degree of vigor that merits the type of targets they're talking about. We're dealing with people like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone and Ali Alexander ... They've had three months, they've done almost nothing."[491]
Representative Scott Perry said on December 21 that he would not cooperate with the committee because, in his view, the committee itself was "illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives."[492] Similarly, on January 23, 2022, Newt Gingrich said on Fox News that he believed the committee was breaking laws, but he did not specify which laws.[493]
On December 23, Laurence Tribe, American legal scholar and University Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at Harvard University, and colleagues published in The New York Times about Attorney General Merrick Garland: "Only by holding the leaders of the Jan. 6 insurrection — all of them — to account can he secure the future and teach the next generation that no one is above the law. If he has not done so already, we implore the attorney general to step up to that task."[494]
In June 2022, Fox News announced that it would not carry live coverage of the hearings, relegating it to its sister channel Fox Business and local Fox network affiliates.[495][496][497] Fox News instead carried special editions of Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity (the former notably airing commercial-free) that largely featured criticism of the hearing,[497][498] with Carlson deeming it "propaganda", and lower thirds describing it as a "sham", "show trial" and "political theater".[499] The Washington Post reported that members of the committee were given increased security due to greater threats made against them.[500]
According to a poll conducted in July 2021 by Politico, a majority of Americans support the January 6 investigation, with 58% overall supporting and 29% opposing; 52% of Republicans polled opposed it.[501] When Politico repeated the poll in December 2021, again, three-fifths supported the committee, including 82% of Democrats, 58% of independents, and 40% of Republicans.[502]
In an August 2021 Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll, 58% of American voters said they thought the committee was biased, while 42% thought it was fair.[503] In September 2021, a Pew Research poll found that only 11% of American adults said they were very confident the committee would be fair and reasonable while another 34% were somewhat confident, while a 54% majority said they were not too confident (32%) or not at all confident (22%). Confidence was highly partisan: Nearly two-thirds of Democrats and less than a quarter of Republicans said they were at least somewhat confident.[504]
Just greater than half of Americans believe that Trump should face criminal charges for his role in the attack. A Washington Post–ABC News poll taken a week after the attack found 54% giving this response, and over a year later, it had not changed substantially, as 52% gave the same response to the same organization's poll conducted April 24–28, 2022. The division is partisan: five out of six Democrats support charging Trump, while five out of six Republicans oppose doing so.[505]
NBC News found that the percentage of Americans who believe that Trump was solely or mainly responsible for the January 6 attack dropped from 52% in January 2021 to 45% in May 2022. A decrease was found within all subgroups: Democrats, Republicans, and independents.[506] Opinions changed after the committee began public hearings. An Ipsos poll conducted June 17–18, 2022 found that 58% of Americans believe Trump is significantly responsible for the attack on the Capitol.[507] An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted June 23–27, 2022 found that 48% of Americans believe Trump should be charged with a crime.[508]
The same Ipsos poll on June 17–18, 2022 also found that 60% of Americans believe the committee's investigation is fair and impartial.[507] Similarly, an Economist/YouGov poll conducted June 18–21, 2022 found that 78% of Democrats, but only 15% of Republicans and 37% of independents, believe the committee's investigation is "legitimate". 78% of Democrats, but only 22% of Republicans and 41% of independents, said they "strongly" or "somewhat" approved of the committee's work.[509]