What Will the January 6 Committee Deliver?
A summary of what we know so far
What’s the purpose of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack?
Typically, a congressional committee has a legislative purpose. The January 6 committee may seek to clarify how presidential elections are certified.
But it’s doing more. It’s using its power as a U.S. democratic institution to investigate an attack on that same democracy. It’s researching. Eight months in, the committee has interviewed over 800 people and obtained tens of thousands of documents, including White House communication records held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It has managed to do this even though Trump has been telling Republicans not to cooperate with the committee and to withhold testimony or documents. Some cooperate nonetheless. The committee recently interviewed Trump family members Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who spent a combined 14 hours on the witness stand. And the committee is not done.
The committee isn’t neutral on the question of whether U.S. democracy should be overthrown. As this ethical position has become partisan, the Republican National Committee censured the two House Republicans who serve on the committee. It said it would no longer support…
