Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) mentioned Thursday that Democrats are prepping to battle any GOP effort to reduce the severity of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Jeffries mentioned he’s in talks with Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the senior Democrat on the Home Judiciary Committee, concerning the celebration’s finest strategy to a brand new choose committee, created by Republicans this week, that may revisit the assault within the coming months.
Republicans have sought to downplay each the violence on Jan. 6 and President Trump’s position in fomenting it. Jeffries advised he expects the brand new choose committee to proceed these tendencies, warning that Democrats gained’t enable Trump’s allies to rewrite the historical past of the tragic occasion.
“We will aggressively and forcefully push back against any effort to try to whitewash what happened on Jan. 6, where a mob of violent individuals attacked the Capitol as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election at the direction of Donald Trump,” he advised reporters within the Capitol.
Accredited by Home Republicans on Wednesday, the choose committee is designed to revisit the occasions of Jan. 6, when tons of of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to dam Congress from certifying his defeat within the 2020 election. Greater than 1,500 folks have been convicted of federal crimes associated to the rampage, together with assaults on law enforcement officials; Trump pardoned nearly all of them on his first day again in workplace.
The brand new investigative panel additionally seems to have the jurisdiction to look at the work of the primary Jan. 6 choose committee, which was created by Democrats in 2021, below former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and reached the conclusion that Trump had orchestrated the riot.
Republicans have bashed that investigation, characterizing it as a one-sided “witch hunt” designed solely to harm Trump politically. That was the conclusion of a report issued final 12 months by Republicans on the Home Administration Committee’s oversight subpanel, led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.).
That investigation additionally blamed the assault on leaders of the U.S. Capitol Police, for a failure to offer correct safety, and really useful that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a Trump critic who helped lead the primary Jan. 6 choose committee, be prosecuted.
Jeffries is accountable for naming three Democrats to sit down on the brand new, eight-member choose committee, though Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — who will select the 5 Republicans — has veto energy over the Democratic picks. The panel will probably be led by Loudermilk, who mentioned it would construct off his earlier work.
“While my previous investigation did an incredible job last Congress, there is still much work to be done,” he mentioned. “Our goal is to answer the remaining questions, uncover all the facts, and implement reforms so this level of security failure never happens again. It’s time to finish the job.”
Jeffries didn’t point out a timeline for selecting his nominees. His conversations with Raskin, a former constitutional lawyer who sat on the preliminary Jan. 6 committee, counsel the Maryland Democrat will probably be amongst them.
In response to the brand new investigation, Raskin mentioned Democrats will use the platform to focus on Trump’s position within the Jan. 6 assault.
“[We] welcome yet another chance to remind Americans of House Republicans’ ongoing complicity with — and embarrassing apologetics for — MAGA’s violent insurrection against Congress and Vice-President Mike Pence and Trump’s sinister attempt to overthrow a presidential election which he lost to President Biden by more than 7 million votes,” he mentioned.
Emily Brooks contributed.
