Signs of tension rise between Justice, Jan. 6 panel
by Harper Neidig - 06/18/22 5:00 PM ET
Tensions between the Justice Department and the House Jan. 6 select committee have slipped into public view amid the panel’s first public hearings for its investigation.
A standoff between the parallel probes over the committee’s refusal to share its interview transcripts led federal prosecutors this week to agree to postpone the trial date for a group of Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy.
And as lawmakers present compelling evidence of criminality in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, the hearings are adding fuel to the looming question of whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) is adequately investigating those concerns.
In a letter sent Wednesday to the select committee’s chief investigative counsel, the heads of the DOJ’s national security and criminal divisions and the U.S. attorney for D.C. renewed their request for the lawmakers to share transcripts for all of their witness interviews.
“The Select Committee’s failure to grant the Department access to these transcripts complicates the Department’s ability to investigate and prosecute those who engaged in criminal conduct in relation to the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” the letter reads. “Accordingly, we renew our request that the Select Committee provide us with copies of the transcripts of all the interviews it has conducted to date.”
The committee has indicated that it plans to release its transcripts in September, and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the panel’s chairman, said this week that he does not intend to disrupt his own investigation by accelerating that timeline.
“We will work with them, but we have a report to do,” Thompson told reporters on Thursday. “We are not gonna stop what we’re doing to share the information that we’ve gotten so far with the Department of Justice. We have to do our work.”
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https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3528327-signs-of-tension-rise-between-justice-jan-6-panel/
