Tipsheet

Trouble Might Be Coming for Members of the January 6th Committee

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 15, 2024 1:45 PM

Earlier this week we highlighted how there looks to be a whole lot of problems plaguing the January 6 Select Committee from the previous Congress. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who serves as the Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight, released a report which called out many of the narratives we had previously been force fed about January 6, 2021. Now, he's saying that criminal referrals could come for those involved, at least at some point down the road. 

In an interview with Just the News, he addressed how accountability is warranted, though he also wants more information. The write-up described Loudermilk as "frustrated that videotapes of interviews, transcripts and other evidence that Congress gathered under the prior Jan. 6 inquiry run by Democrats was deleted, destroyed, moved to other federal agencies or locked behind passwords that have not been recovered, and he believes some form of accountability is warranted."

What's particularly telling is what Loudermilk had to say about Cheney's involvement:

“As far as holding people accountable, yes, they should be,” Loudermilk said during an interview with Just the News, No Noise television show. “But I think that's going to be a little ways down the road, because there is so much more information that we need to get. And we need to build not only this, to get the truth out to the American people, but see just how big this case potentially is for obstructing.”

Loudermilk also took a shot at Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former chairman of the Jan 6 Select Committee, saying he believes Thompson left control of decisions of the committee to his former Republican vice chairwoman, ex-Rep. Liz Cheney.

“There's still documents that we need to get hold off. We still don't have passwords for the encrypted documents,” Loudermilk said. “It's amazing that you know, when I asked the former Chairman Bennie Thompson, ‘all I want you to do is give me the passwords.’ He said, ‘I don't even know what you're talking about.’

“Well, I think it's coming down to he probably didn't, because now new information we're getting is that Liz Cheney ran that committee,” Loudermlk added.

This is revealing. While it was Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who was the chairman, and Cheney who was the vice chairman, it looks like she could have been pulling the strings here. 

One part of the report mentioned above did reveal that Cheney held a position that was initially meant for a Democrat. "Cheney was not the minority ranking member but served as Vice Chair of the Select Committee—a position under House Rules for a member of the same party as the Chair. Pelosi appointed Cheney to the Select Committee as one of Pelosi’s eight majority appointments to the Select Committee. Former Select Committee staff members spoke out against Cheney’s insistence that the Selec tCommittee focus on President Trump," a finding of the one-page explainer revealed. 

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Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) had been named by then House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to serve as a Republican member on the Select Committee, and would have been ranking member, but then Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) objected to him and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) serving. 

Banks also posted his outrage about the report's findings earlier in the week.

Again, accountability, such as criminal referrals could come in time, as Loudermilk went on to explain, with added emphasis. This especially applies to Cheney as a former member:

Lawmakers and congressional staff enjoy significant immunity from punishment, at least in criminal court, for their official actions in Congress under the Constitution’s separation of powers.

Loudermilk said he will decide on a possible course for seeking accountability after his subcommittee resolves access to the evidence that is still missing and determines responsibility. He said options range from a criminal referral to DOJ for obstruction to censure by Congress or a referral to the House Ethics Committee for investigation.

“Those are options. We also have to look at what other options are there. There’s also censure-ship, ethics, obviously, but also consider there are members of that Select Committee who are no longer members of Congress. So they may fall under a different scenario,” he said.

“So we do have the tools of members of Congress, but also, active members of Congress have certain protections. So we'll have to work on that. Because as you talked about earlier, we're in uncharted territory right now. And so we're going to have to work through this,” he added.

Cheney lost her primary by nearly 40 points to now Rep. Harriet Hageman in August 2022. She is indeed no longer a member, though still looks to be involved in the political process as part of her focus against former and potentially future President Donald Trump. 

Of the nine members on the Select Committee, only five members remain in Congress. Not only did Cheney lose her primary, but former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who is as rabidly anti-Trump as Cheney is, retired. For all of his troubles, Illinois Democrats had pretty much redistricted his seat out of existence. Former Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) chose to retire rather than lose, and sure enough her seat is now filled by Republican Rep. Cory Mills. Although she did run for reelection, former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) lost the general to now Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. Her involvement on the January 6 Select Committee indeed did not help Luria, as even The New York Times admitted. 

As our sister site of Twitchy covered, pointing to an article from Breitbart about the interview, people very much want to see these criminal referrals.

Meanwhile, Cheney, who has had no problem getting into it with conservatives over social media to defend the Select Committee, has been quiet since March 12, when she fired off a post doubling down.