Top House Democrats pressed federal agencies, including the Justice Department, the FBI, and the White House, for documents related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, asking Biden officials to hand over records from the waning weeks of the Trump administration.
Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, and the leaders of the Armed Services, House Administration, and Homeland Security committees signed the letters.
“In today’s letters, the Chairs requested documents and communications from three key time periods — before, during, and after the attack — which relate to the counting of the Electoral College vote, or the potential for demonstrations, violence, or attacks in the National Capital Region on or around January 6, 2021,” Democrats said Thursday.
The Democratic-led House voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for allegedly inciting an insurrection, but he was acquitted after a Senate trial.
The document requests were sent to White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and the leaders of the National Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the U.S. Park Police.
Letters were also sent to Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, along with the heads of the Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. Capitol Police.
The letters to the agencies and offices were largely similar, though the record requests to the Justice Department and FBI noted that “we understand that the [Department of Justice] [FBI] continues to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in the events on January 6, 2021. We are happy to work with you to ensure that the document requests in this letter do not interfere with ongoing investigations and prosecutions.”
JUDGE SURPRISED BY DOJ SPECULATION ABOUT SEDITION
A federal judge criticized the Justice Department in a rare rebuke Tuesday after DOJ officials speculated in the media about possible sedition charges against members of the Oath Keepers. Members of the Oath Keepers militia and the Proud Boys were hit with conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in the Capitol siege, but no one has been charged with sedition.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta was “surprised” to see Michael Sherwin, the former acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, speculating about this during 60 Minutes on Sunday, he said during a court hearing conducted by phone and Zoom.
The judge was also unhappy about anonymous DOJ officials speculating about the investigation in an interview with the New York Times on Monday, he said.
Both situations would be referred to the Office of Personal Responsibility for investigation, a federal prosecutor told the judge.
The record requests to each department asked for “documents and communications received, prepared, or sent between December 1, 2020 and January 4, 2021 by employees” of the agencies “relating to the counting of the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021, or the potential for demonstrations, violence, or attacks in the National Capital Region on or around January 6, 2021.”
The letters also requested “documents and communications received, prepared, or sent between January 5, 2021 and January 7, 2021 by employees … relating to the counting of the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021 or the events of January 6 2021.”
The requests asked for “documents and communications received, prepared, or sent between January 8, 2021 and January 20, 2021 by employees … relating to the events or aftermath of January 7, 2021.”
The Democratic letters asked the agencies to prioritize “communications with the White House” and other federal, state, or local entities as well as any information “relating to any requests or offers for security assistance.”
The Democrats also prioritized documents related to threat or intelligence assessments, after-action reports, response timelines, and operational summaries, as well as any evidence regarding employees participating in the Capitol riot, any communications between employees and rioters, and what disciplinary measures would be taken.
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Officer Brian Sicknick, a 42-year-old who joined the Capitol Police in 2008, died after responding to rioters breaking into the Capitol as lawmakers counted electoral votes to affirm President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, Capitol Police announced.
Two men were charged with assaulting Sicknick with a chemical spray, but they have not been charged with murder, and his cause of death has not been made public.
Four others died as a result of the siege of Congress. Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Trump supporter, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while allegedly attempting to climb through a window into the Speaker’s Lobby. Three others died from “medical emergencies,” according to officials.
More than 400 people have been charged in connection to the Capitol riot, Sherwin said.
The pipe bombs found by investigators outside the headquarters for the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee, which were planted the night before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, were real weapons and not props, he added. The person who planted the pipe bombs is still at large.
