Going after collaborators

The House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection just announced subpoenas on two groups that served as the shock troops in the assault on the Capitol: The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

This will likely provoke a serious escalation of anger on the right. Which in turn highlights two subplots about the ongoing investigation: First, investigators appear largely unfazed by right-wing efforts to cow them into backing off by depicting the inquiry as a broader persecution of conservatives.

Second, despite efforts on the right to cast the investigation in those terms, the focus is falling heavily on the motives and conduct of potential organizers of the assault, as distinct from rallygoers outside those groups who might have gotten swept up in the passions of the moment.

The letters that the select committee sent to the new subpoena targets do not say exactly what was subpoenaed. But you can glean a sense of general intent: It appears investigators want to determine the degree of coordination that went into the assault.

For instance, the letter to Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the head of the far right Proud Boys, declares that Tarrio posted online days before Jan. 6 that the group will be showing up “incognito” without their “traditional black and yellow.”

The letter also notes that “at least 34 individuals affiliated with the Proud Boys” have been indicted in relation to the attack, and says the indictments “describe prior planning and coordination.” The letter cites indications to this effect on social media in the run-up to Jan. 6. And as Kyle Cheney has reported, indictments also allege a carefully coordinated assault on weak points in the Capitol.

Similarly, the letter to the Oath Keepers, a loose collection of anti-government militia, cites a federal indictment alleging a conspiracy among some members to impede an official proceeding by disrupting the electoral count, which Donald Trump incited the mob to carry out that day.

All this comes after the committee subpoenaed longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone, noting explicitly in its letter that Stone both helped organize the rally that culminated in the attack and that he had relied on the Oath Keepers to provide personal security.

Clearly, the committee is focusing on gaining as much insight as possible into how preplanned the attack was and the degree to which its express intent was to disrupt the transfer of power to keep Trump in power illegitimately.

“One of the things we need to report about was whether the violence that took place was a spontaneous eruption or whether it was planned by different groups and forces involved,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee, told me. “We also are trying to determine the level of coordination among the different violent elements.”

It was not obvious the committee would go this route. Right wing media have been pushing hard on the narrative that as retribution for Jan. 6, a massive and jackbooted persecution is under way against conservatives everywhere. Tucker Carlson’s suggestion that Jan. 6 was a false flag pretext for this is what prompted two high-profile conservatives to quit Fox News.

So it’s notable that despite this, the committee is not refraining from going aggressively at far right groups over their involvement.