Riot panel invites 3 more lawmakers
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol sent letters Monday seeking interviews with three Republican members of Congress and the panel said it had gathered evidence that some House Republicans sought presidential pardons in the aftermath of the violence.
The committee is requesting interviews with Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, former leader of the House Freedom Caucus; Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, who has said former President Donald Trump has continued to seek reinstatement to office; and Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, Trump’s former White House doctor.
In a letter to Biggs, the committee’s leaders wrote that they wanted to question him about evidence they had obtained about efforts by certain House Republicans to seek a presidential pardon after Jan. 6 in connection with Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Your name was identified as a potential participant in that effort,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., leaders of the committee, wrote to Biggs. “We would like to understand all the details of the request for a pardon, more specific reasons why a pardon was sought and the scope of the proposed pardon.”
The committee also said it wanted to interview Biggs about a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting he attended at the White House with several other members of the Freedom Caucus. There, the discussion included a plan in which former Vice President Mike Pence would refuse to count certain states’ certified electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Investigators said they also had evidence about Biggs’ efforts to persuade state legislators to join Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election.
The panel also wants to question Biggs about Ali Alexander, a prominent organizer of so-called Stop the Steal rallies with ties to far-right members of Congress who sought to invalidate the 2020 election results. Alexander has said he, along with Biggs, Brooks and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., set the events of Jan. 6 in motion.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted video posted online. He added that even if they couldn’t lobby the lawmakers, “we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body.”
“We would like to understand precisely what you knew before the violence on Jan. 6,” Thompson and Cheney wrote to Biggs.
Brooks, who wore body armor on stage that day as he told the crowd to “start taking down names and kicking ass,” and Biggs, who provided a video message for Alexander to play at a Dec. 19 rally, have denied coordinating event planning with Alexander.
The panel wants to question Brooks about statements he made in March claiming that Trump had asked him repeatedly in the months since the election to illegally “rescind” the results, remove President Joe Biden and force a special election.
Brooks said Trump had made the request of him on multiple occasions since Sept. 1, 2021. He said the former president did not specify exactly how Congress could reinstall him, and that Brooks repeatedly told him it was impossible.
“I told President Trump that ‘rescinding’ the 2020 election was not a legal option. Period,” Brooks said.
Investigators said they had questions for Jackson, the former White House doctor who is now a member of Congress, about why he was mentioned in encrypted messages from the Oath Keepers militia group, some of whose members have been charged criminally in connection with the attack. In the messages, the militia members appear to have Jackson’s cellphone and say he is “on the move” and “needs protection” as the violence was underway.
Members of the Oath Keepers, including its leader, Stewart Rhodes, exchanged encrypted messages asking members of the organization to provide Jackson personally with security assistance, suggesting he has “critical data to protect,” according to federal prosecutors.
On Jan. 6, Jackson posted photographs of himself at Trump’s rally on the Ellipse that preceded the violence.
Thompson and Cheney wrote to Jackson: “We would like to discuss how and when you returned from the Ellipse to the Capitol, and the contacts you had with participants in the rally or the subsequent march from the Ellipse to the Capitol.”
Biggs and Brooks did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the letters.
In a statement, Jackson called the committee “illegitimate” and said he would not agree to an interview. He denied being in contact with the members of the Oath Keepers.
The letters to members of Congress come after the committee picked up a court victory late Sunday against the Republican National Committee, which had attempted to block a subpoena to a vendor, Salesforce.com.
The panel is investigating how Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party raised hundreds of millions of dollars from donors while making the false claim that the election had been stolen. A federal judge ruled investigators may obtain the RNC’s marketing email data.
The Jan. 6 committee is planning a series of public hearings in June to reveal its findings. Thompson has said eight hearings will take place over several weeks beginning June 9, some in prime time in an effort to attract a large television audience.