Speaker Johnson forms committee to probe Jan. 6, Democrats' original investigation

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday said he will establish a new select subcommittee that will probe the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — and likely dig into the now-defunct Jan. 6 select committee that was led by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) will chair the upcoming select subcommittee, which will be housed within the House Judiciary Committee.

Loudermilk pursued his own Jan. 6 investigation within the House Administration Committee, and had long been asking Johnson to break out the probe into its own entity.

Being classified as a “select” subcommittee means Johnson will have the sole official power to decide which members sit on the panel.

The move comes as many Republicans, including Johnson, have defended or brushed aside President Trump’s pardons this week of nearly all rioters involved in the Jan. 6 attack, including those who assaulted police officers.

“House Republicans are proud of our work so far in exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated January 6 Select Committee during the 117th Congress, but there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said in a statement. “We are establishing this Select Subcommittee to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people.”

Loudermilk in a statement said he hoped to “uncover all the facts and begin the arduous task of making needed reforms to ensure this level of security failure may never happen again.”

But beyond security concerns, Republicans have been eager to continue investigating the original Jan. 6 select committee, with which Republican leadership refused to participate or cooperate.

Loudermilk in December released a report evaluating the “failures and politicization” of the Jan. 6 committee and recommending a criminal investigation into Cheney, accusing her of witness tampering by being in touch with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide.

In a statement at the time, Cheney said Loudermilk’s report “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did.”

The desire for prosecution may have played into former President Biden’s move, just hours before the end of his presidency, to preemptively pardon the members of the Jan. 6 select committee and its staff.

Those and other last-minute pardons have prompted suggestions that Republicans compel testimony or depositions from those who received pardons, since it removes a reason to refuse to answer questions by invoking a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Loudermilk earlier this week indicated that Congress could call Jan. 6 select committee members in for questioning in light of the Biden pardons.

Asked if there is now an incentive to bring in the Jan. 6 select committee members for questioning, Loudermilk told The Hill: “I think definitely, this is a situation that we still got to dig a little deeper.”

“It’s also interesting, I think, to look at those he didn’t pardon,” Loudermilk added, mentioning Hutchinson.

The Jan. 6 select committee had subpoenaed a number of GOP lawmakers in its probe — including Reps. Scott Perry (Pa.), Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.), who did not comply. It had also asked Loudermilk to appear voluntarily to explain a tour he gave in the Capitol complex on Jan. 5, 2021, a request Loudermilk said was meant to push a “false narrative.”

In a joint statement Monday, Thompson and Cheney said they had faced “specific threats of criminal prosecution and imprisonment by members of the incoming administration, simply for doing our jobs and upholding our oaths of office.”

Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, praised the new panel.

“Rep. Loudermilk has been the leader in getting to the bottom of what the Democrat-led January 6 Committee failed to uncover, and we look forward to helping him bring all the facts to the American people,” Jordan said in a statement.

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