Politics

Pelosi’s Jan. 6 Team Plots Next Move Ahead Of 2022 Midterms

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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The Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is considering subpoenaing Republican members of Congress as part of its operations, with staffers hinting at a final report that would be published ahead of the 2022 midterms.

“If we have the authority, and the lawyers are still looking at it, to pursue it, then we’ll do it,” chairman and Democratic Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson told The Washington Post. The committee has already reached out to Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan about their interactions with then-President Donald Trump and members of his administration. Perry was reportedly involved with an effort to install then-Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark as the head of the Department of Justice, and Jordan reportedly spoke to Trump during the Capitol riot.

Both Perry and Jordan have declined to meet with the committee, decisions that Thompson described as “unfortunate.”

“If they choose not to come voluntarily, we’ll have to see what, if any, options we have as a committee,” he added.

In addition to hearings with witnesses, the committee “may issue a couple reports and I would hope for a [full] interim report in the summer, with the eye towards maybe another — I don’t know if it’d be final or another interim report later in the fall,” an aide said. The 2022 midterms serve as a hard deadline for the committee, since Republicans will shut it down if they take back the House of Representatives. (RELATED: McConnell: Jan. 6 Committee Findings Are ‘Something The Public Needs To Know’)

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 17: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) announces that he will issue a subpoena to compel acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to testify during a hearing about ‘worldwide threats to the homeland’ in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill September 17, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The House of Representatives has previously voted to hold former Trump advisor and media personality Steve Bannon and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt for refusing to cooperate with the committee.

The committee is also reportedly interested in speaking to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, and Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks. Both Gosar and Brooks were named in a request sent by the committee to telecommunications companies asking them to maintain the phone records of eleven members of Congress, and McCarthy spoke with Trump by phone during the riot.

The committee expected to resume holding public hearings in early 2022, multiple aides with knowledge of the committee’s schedule told The Washington Post.

During the committee’s first public hearing, several Capitol Police officers testified about their experiences during the riot. One police officer described being called the n-word, while another testified that he thought he would be killed.