Will the House January 6 Select Committee finish its investigation before the 2022 midterm elections? The Committee’s members and their staff have already interviewed over 250 individuals in less than half a year, according to the Associated Press (AP). It will not be long before the Select Committee will be showing us live testimony, “multiple weeks” of it.
A previous member of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Jeffrey Clark tried to provide Donald Trump a first-class ticket into a second term. In other words, he participated in another form of insurrection. Clark, an attorney, was supposed to appear before the panel on Saturday, but he had documented evidence that he had a health issue. He will come on December 16 instead.
Select Committee Vice Chair Representative Liz Cheney(R-WY) commented on what would come next, “multiple weeks” of public hearings:
‘[It will have] multiple weeks of public hearings, setting out for the American people in vivid color exactly what happened every minute of the day on January 6th, here at the Capitol and at the White House, and what led to that violent attack.’
Thus far, the Committee has issued 40 subpoenas. Only two recipients said no to their request. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, (D-MI) indicated that they have talked to everyone from the ex-president’s White House members to state officials in four swing states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Cheney added:
‘History is watching.’
Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said according to Clark’s attorney:
‘[There is] no specific basis for that assertion. [But it is a] last-ditch attempt to delay the Select Committee’s proceeding.’
Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) also sits on the committee, and he said that there were still those who trusted Trump:
‘[E]xposing all the malefactors and bloodshed that went on here is really important.’
Schiff continued:
‘[The hearings will show] intelligence leading up to the attacks — or lack of intelligence — the role of social media, the former president’s role, the role of those around him and tell it in a narrative fashion so the public follows exactly what’s going on.’
Then Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said there would be no “magic wand:”
‘If he thinks that he’s just going to be able to wave a magic wand with the Fifth Amendment the way he tried to wave a magic wand before with executive privilege, it’s not going to work.’
The DOJ prosecuted Steve Bannon on two charges of criminal contempt, and it will do the same to Clark if he stalls. Clark’s lawyer now says his client wants to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Thompson said the lawyer had offered, according to The Rolling Stone.
Clark started out refusing to answer questions about executive privilege, but then he and his attorney stood up and walked out. After the Committee voted to hold the former DOJ employee in contempt of Congress, he said that he would come and take the Fifth Amendment. Then, the Select Committee would vote on the charges as early as next week if necessary.
From there, the DOJ decides the next step, which could be contempt charges.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in process). Find her here on Facebook.
