10 reasons Jan. 6 panel wants to talk to Jordan

Yes, Jim Jordan, we are serious about needing to talk with you and here are five pages of reasons why.

That’s the gist of a letter last week to the Ohio GOP congressman from the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The bipartisan panel has subpoenaed Jordan and four other Republican House members, but so far they have resisted.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-mississippi, extended the deadline for a response from Jordan until June 11.

“Cooperation with our investigation would also give you the opportunity to resolve, on the record, inconsistencies in your public statements about the events of Jan. 6. For instance, you have offered inconsistent public statements regarding when and how many times you spoke with President (Donald) Trump on Jan. 6,” Thompson said in the letter.

“Given that you have said all along ‘I have nothing to hide,’ we expect that you would be willing to clarify these statements for us.”

Jordan has taken issue with the subpoena but has not said whether he will defy the request.

Among the 10 reasons the select committee listed for wanting to hear from Jordan were two previously undisclosed items:

He requested a call with then-attorney General William Barr on Nov. 6, the day before the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden.

The same day he asked to talk with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows about “efforts to pressure Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe to audit his state’s election results.”

The panel also wants to hear from Jordan about an account from a book:

Jordan told Meadows the afternoon of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that Trump’s “various congressional supporters seemed increasingly less excited now that their revolt would be covered only by C-SPAN.”

Other Jordan involvement cited by the committee:

A Nov. 9, 2020 meeting with senior White House officials in which a “blueprint” was developed to “hammer home the idea that the election was tainted.”

A Nov. 14 meeting with Trump campaign officials and members of Congress in which Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani outlined a strategy to (falsely) question the integrity of Dominion Voting Systems (some of which are used in Ohio) and link them to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.

On Dec. 21, Jordan and several members of Congress met with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the president’s legal team to review options on challenging certification of the election.

In December, Trump told the Department of Justice that Jordan was “trying to find out what happened” to election fraud allegations.

On Jan. 5, Jordan passed along advice to Meadows that Pence should refuse to certify “unconstitutional” votes.

Starting almost immediately after the election, Jordan repeated called the integrity of the vote into question, and advised Trump not to concede the election even after results were certified Jan. 6.

Jordan talked with Trump the morning of Jan. 6 shortly before the Capitol riot began, and later the same day.