WE’VE SEEN ONLY THE SURFACE OF THE U.S. CAPITOL INVESTIFGATION

 

                           …Jim Jordan is again being the jerk he has always been

 

As expected, Jordan has declined to appear before the Jan.6^th Committee

 

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is refusing a request from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by the pro-Trump mob.   Jordan is calling their request an “unprecedented and inappropriate demand.”  The reality is that he doesn’t want to tell the truth about his conversations with Donald Trump before and during the attack on the Capitol.

In a letter dated last Sunday and addressed to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the Ohio Republican Jordan, being a close ally of the former president, is accusing the panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, of playing politics. 

“Your attempt to pry into the deliberative process informing a Member about legislative matters before the House is an outrageous abuse of the Select Committee’s authority,” Jordan wrote in the letter, which he posted to his Twitter account Sunday.  It’s an interesting comment, as the Committee is doing exactly what they were set up for, and for doing.

Jordan declined to comply with the December 22 request to appear before the panel to discuss his communication with Trump on the day of the assault.  Jordan previously said that he could not recall how many times he spoke with Trump on Jan. 6 but that he has already stated that they spoke at least once.  Of course, the cell phone records will eventually show how many times and how long any conservations actually happened.  So, what Jordon is saying is most likely just a message to any other Republicans that spoke with Trump on January 6^th, that they need to not agree to volunteer any info about their conversations with the former president on that day.

The panel is also seeking details of any communications Jordan had that day, or the previous day, with Trump’s legal team, or White House staffers, or any members of the “War Room” team that was assembled at the Willard Hotel ahead of the attack, and any other people “involved in organizing or planning the actions and strategies for January 6th.”

The request also specifies that Jordan may be able to provide details about meetings with Trump and White House officials in the weeks and months leading up to Jan. 6 about “strategies for overturning the results of the 2020 election.”

A spokesperson for the committee said that it would respond to Jordan’s letter and consider “appropriate next steps.”

As expected, Jordan’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.

Last month, Jordan declined to say whether he took part in a Jan. 5 briefing with Phil Waldron, a retired U.S. Army colonel who was working with Trump’s outside lawyers.  Waldron has already shared a 38 page PowerPoint presentation that outlined proposals to challenge the 2020 election.

You might remember that the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had sought to put Jordan, along with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on to the select committee when it was being set up.  But the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) prevented both of them, citing their former “statements and actions” and the need to ensure “the integrity of the investigation.”  Needles to say, if they were allowed to be on the committee, they would assure that there would be a problem with the integrity of the group.

The committee has already subpoenaed dozens of people, including prominent advisers to Trump, as part of its efforts to understand what led the pro-Trump mob to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 in the bid to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.  Stephen Bannon and former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, have declined to cooperate, and lawmakers have voted to find them in contempt of Congress.

However, the committee has sought the sitting lawmakers’ voluntary collaboration, as its members examine whether they have the power to compel Republican members of Congress to testify. Thompson, the committee chairman, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Jan. 2 that if it was confirmed that the committee had the power to subpoena lawmakers, “there’ll be no reluctance on our part.”

Jordan is the second Republican lawmaker to reject the committee’s request. After Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was asked on Dec. 20 to meet with the committee to discuss information it said tied him “to events surrounding January 6, including his involvement in efforts to install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General,” Perry tweeted that he would not cooperate and called the committee “illegitimate.”  That’s interesting as it’s just a legitimate as was the Republican Committee that investigated Hillary Clinton regarding the Benghazi Investigation.

Last week, the select committee also requested information from the Fox News Host, Sean Hannity, who Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said had “advance knowledge regarding President Trump’s and his legal team’s planning for January 6.”

The panel said Hannity also appeared to provide guidance and feedback “to the President and certain White House staff regarding that planning.”

Hannity’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement that the committee’s request “would raise serious constitutional issues including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press.”

We’ve only seen the tip of the Iceberg of the January 6^th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Copyright G. Ater 2022