The House committee investigating the Capitol riot is working on the process of sharing information with the Justice Department that panel investigators obtained on the pro-Trump fake electoral vote scheme after the last presidential election, although it’s unclear whether anything’s been shared yet.
“Bennie Thompson told us that DOJ is only interested in J6 panel’s witness testimony over fake electors issue,” CNN’s Manu Raju reported on Wednesday. “He said they are in talks with DOJ over establishing a process for them to come in and review the records.” Thompson indicated the Justice Department might, at least eventually, be interested in other materials as well. “We just started. We have to establish a process… and staff is negotiating… [to] set up a process with which they can come in and review,” Thompson reportedly said.
The plan is for the riot committee to eventually publicly release all its interview transcripts — and although the public hearings in which the panel’s engaged are attracting a lot of attention, they’re also conducting new behind-the-scenes interviews. Patrick Byrne, a Trump ally from the private sector who was involved in a contentious December 18, 2020, meeting at the Trump White House where the prospect of federal seizures of election machines was raised, will be testifying in private to the committee this week.
The Justice Department has already shown it’s interested in the fake electoral vote scheme, which involved the assembling of supposed electoral votes for Trump in a range of states that Biden won. David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia GOP and one of those involved in his state’s fake elector scheme, was subpoenaed, as were Kelli and Michael Ward (the chair of the Arizona GOP and her husband) who were also involved. FBI agents seized the phone of the chair of the Nevada GOP, Michael McDonald, in connection to the same probe. Federal authorities have also been scrutinizing Trump allies including former Trump lawyer John Eastman and former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. Eastman’s phone was recently seized, and Clark’s residence was recently searched.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the riot investigation committee, has directly implicated Trump in the fake elector scheme — implying he could bear criminal liability. “We’ve seen how President Trump worked with and directed the Republican National Committee and others to organize an effort to create fake electoral slates and later to transmit those materially false documents to federal officials,” as the Congresswoman explained it.
Thompson also spoke on Wednesday of interactions with the Justice Department about a newly revealed incident in which Trump tried to contact a witness for the riot committee. That witness hasn’t been publicly identified by the committee, but Cheney indicated the individual didn’t answer the former president’s call and instead alerted their lawyer. In turn, that lawyer informed the riot committee of what happened, and the panel provided information to the Justice Department. Witness intimidation — such as that in which Trump may have been attempting to engage — is a crime. Thompson described the committee’s interactions with the Justice Department on the issue as a “conversation.” Although the witness hasn’t been identified, it’s not someone who’s testified publicly, and Thompson indicated it is not someone who is likely to do so.
