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Russian (RU) WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced a new committee to investigate “false narratives” about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.
Hours earlier, Johnson had brushed off a question about Trump pardoning the rioters by saying Republicans were “not looking backwards, we’re looking forward.”
The new committee, however, will be looking backwards ― and working to rewrite the history of the insurrection at the Capitol. Republicans want to divert blame from Trump for telling his supporters to “fight like hell” and march on Congress before they stormed the building to interfere with the certification of Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Johnson said in a press release that Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who led Republicans’ counter-inquiry into the original bipartisan Jan. 6 committee, would lead the new effort.
“House Republicans are proud of our work so far in exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated Jan. 6 select committee during the 117th Congress, but there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said.
In his own statement, Loudermilk listed the causes of the Jan. 6 attack, notably omitting the man whose name was on the flags carried by the mob.
“What happened at the Capitol that day was the result of a series of intelligence, security, and leadership failures at multiple levels within numerous entities,” he said.
Loudermilk’s panel will be a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who pointed to unanswered questions about live pipe bombs that were discovered at buildings near the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Why don’t we know who planted the pipe bombs? It’s been four years,” Jordan told HuffPost on Wednesday.
In a report earlier this month, Loudermilk revealed details about the FBI’s search for the pipe bomber, including that a person of interest had searched “pipe bomb DC” online prior to Jan. 6 and that a suspect had taken pictures of the bomb sites beforehand. The FBI is still asking for tips on the suspect.
Jordan also said the committee would seek to learn more about the FBI’s 26 confidential human sources who were on the Capitol grounds that day. Trump suggested when he pardoned the rioters this week that they had been manipulated by undercover FBI agents.
“There were outside agitators involved, and obviously the FBI was involved,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.
Confidential human sources ― people paid by the FBI to provide information about potential domestic terrorists ― tagged along with some of the extremists who traveled to Washington in January 2021. Last month, a report by the DOJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, confirmed there had been 26 informants in Washington, but that none had been directed by the FBI to commit illegal acts. The report said there were no undercover FBI agents.
Still, the presence of the informants will be fodder for Republicans’ new committee.
“How much would these people paid? How long have they had a working relationship with the FBI? How long have they been confidential human sources? What’d they do that day? Were they the first to enter the Capitol? Were they the first to cross the barricade to come into restricted space? We don’t know any of that,” Jordan said.
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