GOP report seeks to discredit Jan. 6 committee, exonerate Trump

House Republicans on Monday released a new report into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, discrediting Congress’ initial investigation into the 2021 rampage and accusing former President Trump of wrongdoing as he races to return to the White House next year. He asked that he be acquitted of the act.

Behind the backs of Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Committee Oversight Subcommittee, Republicans announced that the Jan. 6 special committee (which was run under Democratic control during the last Congress) The US government accused the US government of carrying out a planned partisan witch hunt. Just to harm Trump politically.

An 80-page initial findings report released by Loudermilk expands on that story. The group claims the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Police officers was caused by a failure to provide adequate security. Questioning the credibility of Cassidy Hutchinson, the select committee’s star witness. He accused former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of conducting a one-sided investigation in which facts were manipulated and Trump’s guilt was predetermined before the first witness was called.

Republican leaders welcomed the new report as a kind of rebuttal to the task force’s conclusion that President Trump orchestrated the riot.

“This House Government Oversight Subcommittee’s investigation is necessary to correct the incomplete narrative advanced by the partisan task force regarding the January 6 attack,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). “Today’s first report is an important step in that process.” statement.

What the findings do not address are details about Trump’s role in the January 6 attack, including his refusal to concede defeat after the 2020 election. his decision to hold a rally in Washington on the day Congress formally announces the election results; His words encouraged thousands of his supporters, some of them armed, to march on the Capitol to protest the election results. And he remained silent for hours from the White House while a mob of his supporters attacked police officers and stormed the Capitol.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), who chaired the Jan. 6 select committee, quickly slammed the report as “disingenuous.”

“Mr. Loudermilk is simply trying to distract from Donald Trump’s responsibility for the January 6th riot and his own refusal to answer the task force’s questions,” Thompson said in a statement. ” he said.

The report is the first in a series of hearings the Loudermilk Committee plans to hold regarding the events of January 6, 2021, with the first presentation scheduled for Tuesday, and will be held by the Democratic National Committee and the Republican Party. The investigation focuses on a pipe bomb found near the National Committee. Committee the day before the riot. No arrests have been made in connection with the pipe bombs, and Republicans say the special committee is not investigating the incident seriously enough.

“Despite the threat pipe bombs posed and the role they may have played in diverting resources from the Capitol, the Select Committee invested few resources into investigating pipe bombs.” the report states.

Most targeted in the Republican report was Hutchinson, a former special assistant to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, who testified several times before the committee on Jan. 6, including This included making a series of explosive statements during the public hearing. Allegations about former presidents and other members of Congress.

Republicans focused on one of Hutchinson’s most shocking claims and called for a rebuttal. When President Trump was told he couldn’t meet his supporters who were marching to the Capitol, he lunged at security guards and the steering wheel of the presidential car. After his speech at the Ellipse.

Hutchinson said then-chief of staff Tony Ornato had told Trump on Jan. 6 that Secret Service special agent in charge Robert Engel told Trump he could not go to the Capitol after the election. testified that he told Trump he was “furious.” speech. According to Ornato, she testified that Trump then “reached toward the front of the car to grab the steering wheel.”

Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, “Doctor, please take your hands off the wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol,” Hutchinson testified.

But the Republican report seeks to disprove Hutchinson’s key claims, highlighting testimony from a number of relevant witnesses, including Ornato and the driver of the car, that refute her account.

“The driver of the SUV testified that he did not look within reach.” [redacted]. [President Trump] Never got behind the wheel. There was no sign of him lunging to get into the front seat,” the report states.

Mr. Ornato told Congressional investigators that the day after Mr. Hutchinson’s testimony, he told a Secret Service adviser and spokesperson, “That’s not a story that I remember, and I don’t remember ever having said that. It was the first time I heard it. “That’s when she said those things,” he said. ” says the report.

The Republican report also focuses on Hutchinson’s credibility, noting that she repeatedly revised her testimony to argue that she was not a reliable witness.

But Hutchinson’s report and testimony say the star witness became more aggressive with the committee after changing attorneys from Stephen Passantino. Hutchinson said the star witness was a pro-Trump lawyer who urged her to downplay her role in the White House. –For former Justice Department official Jody Hunt.

In a September interview with the committee on January 6, Mr. Hutchinson himself apologized for taking so long to be completely honest with the committee.

“I followed his bad legal advice. I followed his bad legal advice. I own that. But my character and integrity are more important to me than anything else.” she told the committee, records state.

“How he knew that I wanted to foster a relationship with the committee, it was clear for a long time that he did not represent my interests. “I wasn’t going to let my reputation, my character, my integrity be completely destroyed in this moment for a cause I was completely against,” she added.

Republican investigators also accused the task force of suppressing witness records to hide inconvenient testimony. Mr. Thompson countered by pointing out that: Letter of December 2022 The committee outlined an arrangement with the Secret Service that allows investigators to testify without the verbatim transcripts being made public.

Another large part of the Republican report focuses on the process that led to the creation of the special committee on Jan. 6 during the last Congress.

Pelosi sparked a storm of criticism from Republicans when she rejected two of the five Republicans originally nominated to the committee by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). In response, Mr. McCarthy not only refused to replace both of them, but also refused to participate in the process entirely, stripping the other three of their nominations and leaving the investigation committee made up entirely of Pelosi appointees. A meeting was established.

Two of Pelosi’s nominees, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, are Republicans, but both have been vocal critics of Trump. And Republicans argue that these dynamics made the process unfair from the beginning.

“The task force effectively functioned as a federal prosecutor targeting President Trump. However, this was an indictment without due process,” the report said. “There was no cross-examination of the witnesses, and the special committee was determined to obtain one testimony while failing to effectively examine the witnesses and establish the factual truth.”

Pelosi’s reasons for vetoing the two Republicans were specific.

Democrats say Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was present at a White House meeting in December 2020 where Trump and other Republican leaders discussed strategy for January 6 and is under investigation. He became an important witness in this case.

“Jordan was personally involved in the acts and circumstances of January 6 and will be one of the subjects of the investigation,” the commission said in its final report.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is using his committee seat to investigate the Biden administration’s response to the January 6 attack, even though Biden won’t be sworn in as president for another two weeks. I swore that I would.

“Nancy Pelosi created this commission solely to smear conservatives and legitimize the left’s authoritarian policies,” Banks said at the time, a quote included in the commission’s final report. include.

The committee wrote that Mr. Banks “issued a public statement indicating that he had already reached his own conclusions and did not intend to cooperate with any objective investigation on January 6.”

Mr. Loudermilk was appointed to lead a review of the committee’s work after putting it in its crosshairs himself.

The committee released footage of Loudermilk giving voters a tour of the Capitol the day before the riot, passing through several underground tunnels along the way. Some members of the tour group later posted footage of themselves at the Capitol on Jan. 6, telling dozens of Democratic leaders, “We’re here to take you out and pull you out by a hair.” One man warned that

Loudermilk’s report Monday accuses the committee of making “unsubstantiated accusations against members of Congress,” but that section only considers his own episode, noting that previous committees have He accused him of having “malicious motives” during the interview.

Contributed by Rebecca Beitsch.