Transcripts back all the material

Arecent Antelope Valley Press letter writer opined (Feb. 2): “The Democrat-controlled congressional committee to investigate the horrific actions of Jan. 6, 2021, deleted over 1 terabyte of investigation data rather than turn it over to the now Republican-controlled committee. Committee chair, congressperson Thompson and co-chair former congressperson Chaney have made no apparent attempt to make the data accessible — why? What are they keeping secret from the public?”

This claim comes from certain House GOP members that a number of sensitive Jan. 6 video material is missing or outright deleted. This claim was amplified by Donald Trump on his social media site to exonerate himself from culpability in the insurrection when he posted, “Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and items, from the Jan. 6 Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits?”

The GOP claim and Trump’s claim appear to be false. Although some sensitive video material was withheld to protect witnesses, all material nonetheless is backed up by official transcripts. Nothing nefarious by the Jan. 6 Select Committee is happening here.

Moreover, Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to the GOP and the Oversight chairman, Rep. Barry Loudermilk that “...the Select Committee determined that the written transcripts... were the official, permanent records of transcribed interviews.” All witnesses reviewed the data for errors.

Factual evidence that this argument is false is that all materials that the GOP and Trump say are missing were also provided to Trump and his lawyers by Special Counsel Jack Smith in pretrial discovery before the election interference case begins next month.

Former Select Committee member and former Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney posted in January in a direct rebuttal to Trump’s misinformation, “you and your lawyers have had the Jan. 6 committee materials plus the grand jury info and much more for months. Lying about evidence in all caps won’t change the facts. A public trial will show it all.”

According to the Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 lies, falsehoods and misleading statements during his time in office. This figure was corroborated by other various news outlets. Trump endlessly repeats false claims as a method of psychological warfare or PSYOPS. Neil McKinlay Victorville