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House Minority Leader McCarthy and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming appeared together at a 2020 press conference, prior to landing on opposite sides of the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021 siege at the US Capitol.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The January 6 committee has interviewed nearly 1,000 witnesses about what its members say was an effort to overturn the US election.

Seven House Republicans have, so far, elected not to answer the committee's questions.

Defying this investigation could empower Democrats to do the same when Republicans return to power.

While some Trump administration officials have been indicted for refusing to cooperate with the January 6 select committee's investigation into the deadly siege at the US Capitol, a half-dozen House Republicans (and counting) have, so far, sidestepped testifying before the congressional panel.

The holdouts, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, have offered varying reasons for not participating ranging from complaining about the committee's public outreach to assailing the "baseless witch hunt."

The committee and its witnesses, meanwhile, are presenting accounts that Trump and his advisors were informed their efforts to overturn the election possibly illegal but pressed on, with some of them seeking pardons in the Trump administration's final days.

Their arguments could come back to haunt them if they win back control of the House this fall, and Jordan or House Committee on Administration ranking member Rodney Davis of Illinois try to flex the new majority party's powers next year only to have House Democrats recycle the precedent-setting rejections.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona

Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona speaks during the Freedom Caucus press conference on immigration outside the Capitol on Wednesday, March 17, 2021.Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The select committee in a May 2, 2022 letter asked Biggs to testify about any communications he'd had with former President Donald Trump, Trump administration officials, and Stop the Steal rally organizers about challenging the 2020 election results.

Biggs accused the committee of leaking subpoenas to the press before notifying the actual members involved, and railed against the "pure political theater."

"The January 6 Committee's ongoing, baseless witch hunt is nothing more than an effort to distract the American people from the Democrats' and Biden's disastrous leadership," Biggs said May 12 in a press release.

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Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama

Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on the Fire Fauci Act on Tuesday, June 15, 2021.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The select committee in a May 2, 2022 letter asked Brooks to testify about public statements he made in March about Trump repeatedly lobbying him to "rescind" the 2020 election and reinstall him as president. Brooks aired those particular grievances after Trump pulled his endorsement from Brooks' bid to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

Brooks began laying out stipulations for testifying before the "partisan Witch Hunt Committee" in an undated statement, but then declared "that time has long passed."

"If they want to talk, they're gonna have to send me a subpoena, which I will fight," Brooks said in a campaign press release.

Brooks told Insider that he considers himself an outlier among the investigation's targets because everything he knows is already in the public domain, including testimony he gave in 2021 after being sued by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California about the insurrection at the US Capitol.

"I am quite different from all other persons the Committee seeks to interview in that I have already given numerous, lengthy written, sworn statements (Swalwell lawsuit) and written, unsworn public statements that detail my knowledge and conduct concerning January 6 events," Brooks wrote in an email. "The Committee thus already has a fairly full accounting of all knowledge I have."

Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas is a former White House physician who has declared Trump in "excellent health."Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The select committee in a May 2, 2022 letter asked Jackson to testify about any communications he had with members of the pro-Trump Oath Keepers or participants in the "Stop the Steal" rally that immediately preceded the attack on the US Capitol.

Jackson fired back the same day, disavowing any text messaging with Oath Keepers and bashing the committee and press for their "ruthless crusade against President Trump and his allies."

"Yet again, the illegitimate January 6 Committee proves its agenda is malicious and not substantive," Jackson said in a press release. "Their attempt to drag out a manufactured narrative illustrates why the American people are sick of the media and this partisan Committee's use of January 6 as a political tool against conservatives they do not like."

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio at a Capitol Hill press conference.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Jordan's got the longest-running paper trail with the committee to date.

The select committee got things rolling on December 22, 2021 by asking Jordan to testify about his communications with Trump before, during, and after January 6, 2021 regarding challenging the election results.

In his initial response on January 9, 2022, Jordan said he had "no relevant information" to offer the committee, and took investigators to task for even asking.

"This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry, violates core Constitutional principles, and would serve to further erode legislative norms," Jordan wrote in his first letter back to the committee.

After he'd been subpoenaed, Jordan noted that he was still waiting to hear back about questions he posed to the committee in January and bristled at the "dangerous escalation" of compelling him to testify.

"You have not substantively addressed any of the points in the letter or alleviated any of the concerns I raised," Jordan wrote on May 25 adding, that the same concerns "still exist today and have only grown as the Select Committee has continued to leak nonpublic information in a misleading manner in the intervening period."

A federal judge, however, dismissed Republican contentions that the committee is improperly constituted and doesn't serve a legislative purpose, and recently a judge swept aside similar arguments made by one-time Trump advisor Steve Bannon in his failed attempt to get his contempt of Congress trial dismissed.

Jordan delved even deeper into why he's unlikely to ever testify before the committee in the 11-page, heavily-footnoted letter he sent the panel on June 9. In that third missive, Jordan contests the panel's formation, membership, subpoena powers, and "legislative purpose," among other things.

"You seem to believe that you have the authority to arbitrate the scope of a colleague's official activities," Jordan wrote on June 9. "Respectfully, I do not answer to you or the other members of the Select Committee. I am accountable to the voters of Ohio's Fourth Congressional District."

Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia

Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia has faced scrutiny for leading a tour group through the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021.Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The select committee has repeatedly asked Loudermilk to testify about a tour group he led through the US Capitol complex on January 5, 2021 that included at least one person who returned the following day during the riot.

The committee's first letter on May 19, 2022 mentioned that it had reviewed security footage of said tour and that investigators had questions about where they had been.

House Committee on Administration ranking member Rodney Davis defended Loudermilk a day later on social media, calling reports of GOP-led reconnaissance tours "demonstrably false" and urging the Capitol Police to release all security footage from January 5 to clear the air.

The committee released clips of the Loudermilk-led tour on June 15 and followed up with another letter asking him to explain why one of the photo-snapping group members appeared to be documenting areas "not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints."

Loudermilk responded on Twitter, lambasting the committee for "undermining the Capitol Police and doubling down on their smear campaign."

Loudermilk's account of who was on the tour and what they were interested in has shifted over the past 18 months.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy talks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, DC on April 6, 2022.Scott J. Applewhite/AP

The select committee in a January 12, 2022 letter asked McCarthy to testify about his communications with Trump before, during, and after January 6, 2021 regarding challenging the election results. McCarthy has acknowledged having at least one conversation with Trump while MAGA supporters were swarming the Capitol, but has, so far, declined to discuss it with the committee.

The committee subpoenaed him about it on May 25.

McCarthy told reporters that he's sent the committee two official responses through his attorney, Elliot S. Berke, and said he's considering releasing said letters to the press. McCarthy aides did not respond to Insider's request for copies of the letters.

CNN reports that in one letter, Berke accused the committee of playing partisan politics.

"Its only objective appears to be to attempt to score political points or damage its political opponents acting like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee one day and the Department of Justice the next," Berke wrote.

When asked why Democrats should comply with any congressional investigations House Republicans choose to pursue if they claim the majority next year given the defiance he and others have shown about January 6, McCarthy said the difference is "we won't be illegitimate."

"We won't issue subpoenas going after our political opponents," McCarthy told reporters at a June 9 press conference. "We'll do exactly what Congress is supposed to do. We'll uphold the Constitution."

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania

Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania photographed outside the US Capitol on December 3, 2020.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images

The select committee in a December 20, 2021 letter asked Perry to testify about his communications with Trump administration officials about installing Department of Justice attorney Jeffrey Clark as acting US attorney general to help overturn the 2020 election results.

Perry accused the "political witch hunt" of "fabricating headlines" in a May 12 press release, but didn't specify whether he'd testify.

Perry's attorney John P. Rowley III closed the door on that in the response he sent the committee on May 24.

Rowley wrote that Perry declined to testify before a committee "that is operating in contravention of its own rules" and "committed to scoring political points, rather than focusing on the troublemakers who broke into the Capitol."

Perry has also denied that he sought a presidential pardon for anything related to the 2020 election tampering. January 6 committee cochair Liz Cheney said during the June 9 hearing that investigators had uncovered evidence that Perry and other GOP lawmakers had angled for pardons after the Capitol was attacked.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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