Republicans who are doing their own investigation of the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol last winter – because House Speaker Nancy 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 Washington Examiner reported that Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, the two Republicans Pelosi barred from the committee, were on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show and discussed their work.
“Jordan called on Pelosi to sanction the release of documents related to the violence on Jan. 6, 2020, outlined in a new letter from House Administration Committee ranking member Rodney Davis that said the House sergeant-at-arms and the House chief administrative officer, who answer to the speaker, have not produced records requested by Republicans that could shed light on the security at the Capitol that day,” the Examiner explained.
Jordan pointed out that testimony so far is in conflict.
“The Capitol Hill police has said that they asked for the National Guard to be present Jan. 6. The sergeant of arms has said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ One guy says, ‘We asked for it.’ The other guy says, ‘We didn’t.’ The guy who says, ‘We didn’t,’ reports directly to the speaker and won’t turn over the documents. The guy who said we did ask for the National Guard — they have given us the information,” Jordan said.
Banks told Ingraham the GOP still is interviewing Capitol Police officers and others. And he said he supports Trump scheduling a press conference on Jan. 6, pointing out he “has important things to say.”
Pelosi, meanwhile, has scheduled a “prayer vigil” on the anniversary of the Capitol violence.
Banks and Jordan explained Pelosi’s panel “is being used as a political weapon against the former president and his allies,” the report said.
“The American people see it for what it is. So we have to make sure we get the truth out, as Jim Banks said, about what really happened — what should have been in place that day to protect the Capitol,” Jordan said.
WND has reported that Pelosi’s committee likely will end up in court as defendants.
Multiple individuals, including Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, broadcaster Alex Jones, and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., all have begun their own court action, or protest, denying the committee’s authority.
They join a long list of others who already have sued, charging the committee is trying to abrogate the Constitution’s First Amendment with its demands, and isn’t even legitimate because it fails to meet the requirements of the authorizing resolution.
The committee, which is partisan because Pelosi refused to seat the GOP members selected by the minority party and instead recruited two anti-Trump GOP members, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Kinzinger of Illinois, has issued vast and broad demands for statements, evidence, phone records, testimony and much, much more.
But now the Gateway Pundit documents that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has requested from a Florida court a restraining order against Pelosi and her committee.
That request explained, “General Flynn did not organize, speak at, or actively participate in any rallies or protests in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, and he of course did not participate in the attack on the Capitol that day. Ex. A, Declaration of Michael Flynn (‘Flynn Decl.’) ¶ 5. Nevertheless, the Select Committee—assuming the role of shadow prosecutor for the January 6 attack and working in parallel with the actual prosecutors at the Department of Justice—has diverted its attention from its important work to target General Flynn for a quasi-prosecution that is either aimless or transparently partisan.”
He continued, “Despite not participating in any public events in Washington on January 6, Defendants have issued General Flynn a sweeping subpoena seeking twenty different categories of documents and a demand that General Flynn appear for a deposition in Washington, D.C. The subpoena demands records of General Flynn’s communications about the 2020 election, and seeks to identify the basis for his beliefs and the persons with whom he associated, in addition to contacts with government officials. It thus constitutes a frontal assault on his 1st Amendment rights to freedom of speech, association, and petition.”
The Washington Examiner reported Perry is declining to appear before the commission, insisting Pelosi’s faction isn’t legitimate.
“I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives,” he stated. “I decline this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical Left who desperately seek distraction from their abject failures of crushing inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, and the horrendous crisis they created at our border.”
(1/2) I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives.
— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) December 21, 2021
(2//2) I decline this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical Left who desperately seek distraction from their abject failures of crushing inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, and the horrendous crisis they created at our border.
— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) December 21, 2021
The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, had accused Perry of having “multiple text and other communications with President Trump’s former Chief of Staff regarding” Jeffrey Clark, as well as various “communications with the White House,” in demanding his testimony.
If the committee moves forward as it has with other individuals, issuing subpoenas and then referring for contempt charges if they don’t comply, it would put the Democrats into the “new territory” of voting to hold a sitting member of Congress in contempt.
And GOP members already have confirmed they essentially are taking notes on what Democrats, now in the majority, do to Republicans, as the GOP widely is predicted to become the majority as early as the election 11 months from now.
It was Politico that reported broadcaster Alex Jones has sued the committee to block members of obtaining his telephone records and compelling him to testify.
The filing asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and refusing what he described as the committee’s attempt to obtain his documents.
Politico pointed out the committee already is facing “a flood” of litigation, including cases from John Eastman, a lawyer who has sued to protect his phone records. Also, Cleta Mitchell, a prominent conservative attorney who joined Trump’s early January call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, sued to quash a subpoena from the committee.
WND had reported just this week on a new case against the committee from Ali Alexander, the national organizer of “Stop the Steal.”
His charges include that the committee is illegitimate, because it never has complied with the resolution that created it, and its subpoenas are therefore irrelevant.
Earlier, WND had reported that the challenges to Pelosi’s partisan committee included a lawsuit by a freelance photojournalist over a subpoena for all her records.
Just the News confirmed freelancer Amy Harris was suing the House committee over its “invasive and sweeping subpoena” of her telephone records.
Pelosi’s investigators also are facing a lawsuit from Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, over the Democrats’ demands for his telephone records. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been cited with a criminal complaint over his refusal to comply with committee demands, and already has demanded information about communications between the committee members and other evidence, to which he is entitled as a defendant.
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