Quote:The full records of the closed-door testimonies and other information gathered by the January 6 Committee could remain hidden for decades, thanks to the its secretive nature and to laws protecting committee records.

The committee, which was entirely one-sided against former President Donald Trump after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took the unprecedented step of blocking minority party nominees, followed the equally problematic practice of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in conducting his impeachment investigation into Trump in a restricted room of the House Intelligence Committee, thereby controlling the flow of information.

Witnesses, such as Breitbart News’ own Ken Klukowski, a former Trump administration attorney, complained that the committee was intentionally distorting their testimony, and demanded the full record be made public.

But that is unlikely, as the Los Angeles Times notes, because of several laws the committee can hide behind:

The final report by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will provide the most comprehensive account yet of what led to the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. But it’s not likely to include all of the evidence the panel collected in its 18-month investigation.

Congress is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and House rules, which lawmakers approve with each new Congress, set an at minimum two-decade timeline before the public can see records that are preserved.

That means that potentially millions of pages of depositions, cellphone and text records, emails, staff notes and analysis by outside organizations compiled as part of the committee’s investigation that don’t make it into the official final report or aren’t released before the end of the year won’t become public for decades — if they ever do at all.

The committee issued subpoenas despite not having the number of required members of the opposition, or a recognized “ranking member” of the minority party, as indicated by its enabling resolution. Nevertheless, it used the threat of prosecution for contempt of Congress to pressure potential witnesses — who were made to appear behind closed doors and without another side of the argument present to argue an alternative view.

Notably, Speaker Pelosi herself was not called as a witness, nor was any other official who might have shed light on the weakness of Capitol security on January 6. Several members of the panel themselves had disputed the legitimacy of previous elections or challenged the certification of Electoral College votes — the very activity that the committee sought to portray in its public presentations as an act of insurrection against the country.

The report of the committee is expected to be released this week but could be taken offline in the new Congress — just as President Joe Biden took the 1776 Commission Report offline within hours of taking office in 2021.

Link

Republicans’ January 6 Probe Reveals Security Missteps, Finds Sergeant at Arms ‘Succumbed’ to Democrat ‘Political Pressures’

Quote:he five Republicans initially set to serve on the January 6 select committee released a report Wednesday of findings from their investigation into the U.S. Capitol’s security preparedness ahead of the 2021 riot.

The Republicans’ 141-page report explores at length the security measures taken leading up to the events of January 6, 2021, an issue they say the January 6 committee has “thus far ignored.”

The report serves as a counter document to the select committee’s anticipated behemoth conclusive report, which is expected to come this week after the committee held a final public meeting Monday summarizing its investigation and announcing criminal and ethics referrals.

“Leadership and law enforcement failures within the U.S. Capitol left the complex vulnerable on January 6, 2021,” the GOP report states. “The Democrat-led investigation in the House of Representative, however, has disregarded those institutional failings that exposed the Capitol to violence that day.”

The January 6 committee, a nine-member panel of seven Democrats and two Never Trump Republicans, the latter of whom are finishing out their final days in office, has spent 18 months investigating the riot with an outsized and highly publicized focus on former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The executive summary of the select committee’s report, for example, lists 17 key findings from their investigation. The first 12 zero in on Trump, while the last five focus on security measures and intelligence gathering.

The GOP’s report was prepared at the direction of Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Troy Nehls (R-TX), and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND). House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy had initially appointed these five members to serve on the January 6 committee, but after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected Banks and Jordan, McCarthy pulled all the GOP members from the committee and refused to participate in it, calling the committee a “sham.”

The report details how U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) had “sufficient information from an array of channels to anticipate and prepare for the violence that occurred.”

“However, officers on the front lines and analysts in USCP’s intelligence division were undermined by the misplaced priorities of their leadership,” the report states. “Those problems were exacerbated by the House Sergeant at Arms, who was distracted from giving full attention to the threat environment prior to January 6, 2021 by several other upcoming events.”

The Republicans’ report also demonstrates coordination between then-Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Pelosi’s office in the leadup to the riot, making the case that Irving, a member of the USCP board, shut Republicans out of critical conversations and “succumbed to political pressures” from Pelosi and Democrat leadership.

“In one case, Irving even asked a senior Democratic staffer to ‘act surprised’ when he sent key information about plans for the Joint Session on January 6, 2021 to him and his Republican counterpart,” the report found. “The senior Democratic staffer replied: ‘I’m startled!’”

The report also delves into underlying concerns about the optics of bolstering law enforcement at the Capitol.

“Documents and communications show concerns about the public perception of military personnel at the Capitol and how the use of force by officers against violent protestors were well known among Irving, Democratic leadership, and USCP leadership,” the report states, contending the concerns “diminished” the ability of officers to “effectively defend” the Capitol.

In the aftermath of the riot in January 2021, Irving resigned, and communication on page 101 of the Republicans’ report shows Irving’s staff ultimately placing blame on Pelosi. “Our department was doing the best they could with what they had,” a frustrated sergeant at arms staffer wrote in an email.

Republicans have long condemned the January 6 committee for refusing to investigate Pelosi specifically.

House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) highlighted at the time of the January 6 anniversary this year that Pelosi appeared exempt from blame for the riot, despite Pelosi’s history of overseeing other security-related actions at the Capitol, such as installing magnetometers, holding a briefing on security preparedness ahead of a September 18 rally, and limiting Capitol visitation because of coronavirus.

January 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) all but said Pelosi was off-limits in a CNN interview in July 2021. “Well, if you look at the charge that we have in the resolution, it says the facts and circumstances around January 6. I don’t see the speaker being part and parcel to that,” Thompson said.

The GOP report concludes with a number of recommendations, including calling for increased transparency from and structural changes to the USCP board.

It would be a shame for the committee if Elon Musk had the twitter DMs of the committee members and had them released. Might paint some of them in a different light, so to speak.