Jan. 6 Committee’s Evidence Has ‘Vanished’
A new shadow was cast Thursday evening over the investigation of the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as it is now reported there are significant and serious gaps in the preservation of evidence obtained by the now-defunct committee hand-picked by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The evolving story of the corruption surrounding the committee’s work is sure to receive additional attention as the 2024 elections rapidly approach.
The unexplained disappearance of critical recordings of official depositions taken by the January 6 Committee’s investigators raises alarms about the integrity of the committee’s actions.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee, said during an interview Thursday on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show: “All of the videotapes of all depositions are gone.”
The failure to appropriately safeguard the recordings of official depositions directly contradicts House rules. The unexplained breach of protocol raises serious questions about potential misconduct by the committee when it became apparent it would be dissolved immediately upon Republicans retaking control of the House in January of this year after last November’s midterm elections.
Loudermilk said, “According to House rules, you have to preserve any data and information and documents that are used in an official proceeding, which they did. They actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those. But yet he chose not to.”
Rep. Loudermilk went on to directly question the selective preservation of documents by Pelosi’s committee and its underlying motives. He asked directly, “What is it that the committee and or the White House is trying to hide?”
In a related development last Monday that further undermines the transparency of the work done by Pelosi’s committee, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a motion by President Donald Trump to obtain specific documents produced by the January 6 Committee.
Chutkan also denied Trump the opportunity to subpoena Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the chairman of the January 6 Committee, and other government officials. Trump’s legal team had intended to question those persons about the missing materials from the committee’s archives.
Chutkan dismissively wrote in her order: “The broad scope of the records that Defendant seeks, and his vague description of their potential relevance, resemble less ‘a good faith effort to obtain identified evidence’ than they do ‘a general ‘fishing expedition.’”
The refusal to grant access to Trump and the unexplained disappearance of official committee recordings is certain to have a detrimental effect on the work being done by President Trump’s attorneys to prepare his defense in the federal criminal matter pending in Washington, D.C.
