The January 6 select committee was supposed to have yet another hearing on Wednesday, after already having them last Thursday and on Monday, though that's been postponed. Rebecca Beitsch covered the news for The Hill, noting that this Thursday's hearing will still take place.
Although Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who serves on the select committee, provided some information on Tuesday morning's episode of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the select committee does not appear to have yet tweeted about the delay or posted about it on its website.
"There’s no big deal, but I’ll tell you the putting together the video and exhibits is an exhausting exercise for our very small video staff. So we’re trying to — we were going to have 1-2-3 in one week and it’s just it’s too much to put it all together. So we’re trying to give them a little room to do their technical work, is mainly it," Rep. Lofgren said.
Beitsch also wrote on Tuesday morning how "Jan. 6 panel’s chair sparks pushback with criminal referral remarks."
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who chairs the select committee, acknowledged to reporters on Monday night that they don't have the authority to recommend former President Donald Trump for criminal referral.
Here’s how Thompson answered my question earlier today on whether he thinks DOJ should prosecute Trump. https://t.co/hnWLH6q3ug
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 14, 2022
CNN's Manu Raju shared footage of him asking Reps. Thompson and Lofgren what their personal opinion was about whether Trump committed a crime and if he would be investigated or indicted.
"Well, I prefer that we complete our work and share that work with the Department of Justice, and, uh, they will make that call after that. Rep. Lofgren is seen nodding along, adding "they're the prosecutors, not the legislators."
Raju asked for follow-up if they had evidence Trump committed a crime, as the two members walked away. Thompson turned back to add "that's not why we're working. We-we're looking for the facts and circumstances that brought about January 6." Lofgren again emphasized that "we're legislators, they're the prosecutors."
Speaking of the DOJ, Beitsch pointed to comments that Attorney General Merrick Garland made during a Monday press conference, which did not speak to the evidence. "I am watching and I will be watching all of the hearings,” Garland said. “And I can assure you that the Jan. 6 prosecutors are watching all of the hearings as well," he said.
As Raju also included in his Twitter thread, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) doesn't seem to be of the same mind.
Shortly after Thompson and Lofgren made such remarks, Cheney, who serves as the select committee's vice chairman, tweeted that they have actually "not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals," and teased that they "will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time."
The January 6th Select Committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time.
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) June 14, 2022
Cheney's tweet has since received close to 10,000 replies and our friends at Twitchy picked up on the disunity taking place between the select committee's top members.
Rep. Cheney, who was selected to serve on the select committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been among the most vocal and insistent when it comes to criminal referrals.
This is also not the first time there has been a dispute between members about criminal referrals for Trump. In April, as Matt and I highlighted, Rep. Cheney made an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" where she denied there was "a dispute on the committee" with regards to criminal referrals. She also emphasized her claims that Trump had committed unlawful activity. "I think that it is absolutely the case, it's absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing, what a number of people around him were doing, that they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway," she told host Jake Tapper.
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