WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is poised to launch a new investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection on Wednesday with expected approval of a 13-person select committee to probe the violent attack.
The panel would be led by Democrats, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointing a chairperson and at least eight of the committee’s members. The resolution up for a vote gives Pelosi a possible say in the appointment of the other five members as well, directing that they will be named “after consultation” with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
In a memo to all House Republicans late Tuesday, No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise urged his members to vote against the resolution, saying the select panel “is likely to pursue a partisan agenda” in investigating the siege by former President Donald Trump’s supporters. Scalise and McCarthy have so far declined to say whether Republicans will even participate.
Pelosi is moving to form the select committee after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of a separate independent and bipartisan panel that would have been evenly split between the parties and modeled after a commission that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Republicans ready to move on from the insurrection — and Trump’s role in it — argued against that as well, claiming it would be duplicative and partisan.
The speaker has said that it was her preference to have an independent panel lead the inquiry, but that Congress could not wait any longer to begin a deeper look at the insurrection.
The GOP role in the probe, and the appointments to the panel, could help determine whether the committee becomes a bipartisan effort or a tool of further division. Two Senate committees issued a bipartisan report with security recommendations earlier this month, but it did not examine the origins of the siege, leaving many unanswered questions about the events of the day.
McCarthy is facing pressure to take the investigation seriously from police officers who responded to the attack, Democrats and even some of his fellow Republicans. Pelosi has invited representatives of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Capitol Police to sit in the gallery and watch Wednesday’s vote, according to a person familiar with the plan who wasn’t authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity. Dozens of those officers were brutally beaten and suffered injuries as Trump’s supporters pushed past them and broke into the building to interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Two of the officers who responded, Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, met with McCarthy on Friday and asked him to take the House investigation seriously.
Fanone, who has described being dragged down the Capitol steps by rioters who shocked him with a stun gun and beat him, said he asked McCarthy for a commitment not to put “the wrong people” on the panel, a reference to those in the GOP who have downplayed the violence and defended the insurrectionists. Fanone said McCarthy told him he would take his request seriously.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has also publicly pressured McCarthy. “I hope he appoints people who are seen as being credible,” he said Sunday on CNN.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a close Trump ally, said that he doesn’t know what McCarthy is going to do but that it’s possible Republicans will just choose not to be involved.
“I know I’ve got real concerns, I know he does, that this is all just political, and that this is impeachment three against President Trump,” Jordan said.
Trump was twice impeached by the House and twice acquitted by the Senate, the second time for telling his supporters just before the insurrection to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat to Biden.
Pelosi has not yet said who will lead the panel, but one possibility is House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Thompson said Tuesday that it would be an “honor” to serve as chair and that it’s Pelosi’s call if she wants to have a say on the Republican members.
“They had an opportunity to really engage,” Thompson said of Republicans who voted against the bipartisan commission. “And they didn’t. So they can’t now come back and say, ‘Oh, that’s not fair.’”
Many Republicans have expressed concerns about a partisan probe, since majority Democrats are likely to investigate Trump’s role in the siege and the right-wing groups that participated in it. Almost three dozen House Republicans voted last month for the legislation to create an independent commission, and seven Republicans in the Senate have also supported moving forward on that bill. But that was short of the 10 Senate Republicans who would be necessary to pass it.
Many Republicans have made clear that they want to move on from the Jan. 6 attack. But some have gone further, including Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who suggested that video of the rioters looked like a “tourist visit.” Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona insisted that a Trump supporter named Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed that day while trying to break into the House chamber, was “executed.” Others have defended the rioters as they have been charged with federal crimes.
In their meeting with McCarthy, Fanone and Dunn asked the GOP leader to publicly denounce those comments downplaying the violence, as well as the 21 Republicans who recently voted against giving medals of honor to the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police to thank them for their service. They said McCarthy, who voted for the measure, told them he would only deal with those members privately.
Seven people died during and after the rioting, including Babbitt and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies. Two police officers died by suicide in the days that followed, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is acting swiftly to launch a new investigation of the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, choosing a diverse slate of eight lawmakers — one from the opposing party — to serve on a select committee with subpoena power.
Republicans have the chance to recommend five additional members, but it’s unclear whether they will do so. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who could be called to testify about a conversation with former President Donald Trump as the attack unfolded, has not committed to any appointments.
All but two Republicans voted against creating the committee in a vote Wednesday. Pelosi made one of the two Republicans — Liz Cheney of Wyoming, an unsparing critic of Trump — one of her appointments to the panel.
A look at eight lawmakers who have been appointed to the committee so far:
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON, D-MISS.
Thompson is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and will be leading the Jan. 6 select committee. Serving his 14th full term in office, he is the only Democratic member of Mississippi’s congressional delegation. He was a teacher before entering local politics, serving as a mayor and country supervisor, which served as a springboard to the House. He says the committee will focus on delivering a “definitive accounting of the attack — an undertaking so vital to guarding against future attacks.”
REP. ZOE LOFGREN, D-CALIF.
Lofgren is chairwoman of the Committee on House Administration, which has oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police. She has been a member of the House since 1995 and is an immigration attorney and immigration law professor who participated in the impeachment process for three presidents — Trump, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, the latter as a congressional staffer. She said making the Capitol safer is not a substitute for what happened on Jan. 6th: She said: “Who paid for it? How was it organized? We need to find that out to keep the country safe.”
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.
Schiff is chairman of the House Intelligence committee and best known as the leader and public face of Trump’s first impeachment for his actions involving Ukraine. He has served in the House for two decades and prior to entering Congress served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and as a state senator. He expressed dismay on Twitter that only two House Republicans voted for the select committee: “An attack on the Capitol. The Article I branch of our government. Our temple of democracy. If Republicans won’t support that, what will they support? Only what Trump wants.”
REP. LIZ CHENEY, R-WYO.
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney is so far the lone Republican on the new committee. She is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the insurrection at the Capitol, saying he “lit the flame” that ignited the attack. She has only amplified her criticism of Trump since then, angering colleagues who voted to remove her from a leadership position. She took time to visit law enforcement officers and families on Wednesday in the House galleries while lawmakers debated whether to form the committee. She says what happened on Jan. 6. can never be allowed to happen again. “Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner.”
REP. JAMIE RASKIN, D-MD.
Raskin is serving his third term representing a district adjacent to Washington. He served as a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecution lawyer in Trump’s second impeachment trial. In a memorable presentation, he recalled for senators how he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 with his daughter and son-in-law when Trump supporters broke into the building. He fought back tears as he told senators how he had promised his daughter her next trip would be better and she replied: “Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol.” The siege of the Capitol came just days after Raskin’s 25-year-old son, Tommy, took his own life.
REP. ELAINE LURIA, D-VA.
Luria has only been in Congress since 2019, but held many weighty responsibilities before then, serving two decades in the Navy and retiring at the rank of commander. She served at sea on six ships, deployed to the Middle East and culminated her career by commanding a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors. She represents a swing district with a large military and veterans population along the Virginia coast.
REP. PETE AGUILAR, D-CALIF.
Aguilar is serving his fourth term in the House and now holds the No. 6 position in House Democratic leadership. He is a former mayor who now serves on the House Administration and Appropriations committees. “Everyone touched by Jan. 6 deserves to find the truth of what transpired, what led up to it, and how we can protect our democracy moving forward,” Aguilar said Thursday.
REP. STEPHANIE MURPHY, D-FLA.
Murphy is a former national security specialist at the Defense Department now serving her third term in Congress. She worked on a wide range of security issues: counterterrorism, foreign military relations, strategic planning for the department and more. She is the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress. After her appointment to the select committee, she recalled that her family fled Vietnam when she was a baby. “We were rescued by the U.S. Navy and given refuge in America,” she said. “I love this country beyond words.” She added: “To see the citadel of American democracy assaulted is a reminder that our democracy is not self-sustaining. It needs to be preserved and protected by American patriots of every political stripe.”
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
