A House panel created to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol has turned its focus to former President Donald Trump, who Democrats and some Republicans blame for inciting the attack by claiming the 2020 election was rigged.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who heads the committee, made clear his intention to investigate the former president earlier this week when he issued a sweeping request for executive branch documents.
The inquiry includes delving into Trump’s “mental stability” and “fitness for office” in the days following the election when the former president was attacking the election results as illegitimate.
Thomson is asking for thousands of pages of documents from eight agencies, including the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and the FBI, seeking information related to the “run-up” of the Jan. 6 attack.
The request for information was also sent to the National Archives and Records Administration, which maintains presidential records.
The 12-page request seeks documents and communications from dozens of Trump White House officials and his family relating to the former president challenging the election results, his plan to hold a rally near the Capitol on Jan. 6, and allegations that Trump’s own administration considered deeming him unfit for office and removing him in the weeks ahead of President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“Our Constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned and recommend laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations necessary to protect our republic in the future,” Thompson wrote to David Ferriero, the U.S. archivist who controls the records.
The panel’s pivot to Trump confirms GOP fears that the select committee would be utilized to go after the former president and Republicans to damage the party ahead of the critical midterm elections.
Trump is expected to play an outsize role in the election by endorsing and campaigning for congressional candidates. Republicans are just a few seats shy of reclaiming the House majority from Democrats and suspect the party of using the committee as a tool to gain an advantage over the GOP.
“It’s kind of amusing to me of how political they will go with this,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican.
Thompson, who is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, told reporters this week that the panel will also seek records from lawmakers, presumably Republicans whom Democrats accuse of either inciting the rioters or facilitating their access to the Capitol, none of which has been proven.
“They come for members of Congress,” McCarthy warned. “They’re coming for everybody.”
Republicans and Democrats have been at odds over a post-riot investigation ever since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a plan to form an independent commission slanted heavily with Democratic appointees who would be authorized with subpoena power.
The California Democrat eventually changed the format to be a bipartisan commission. Still, it never won a GOP buy-in, partly because Republicans wanted to expand the scope of the investigation to include other violent protests.
Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed commission, leading Pelosi and Democrats to pass a House-only committee unilaterally, and it is now made up of mostly Democratic lawmakers.
Pelosi appointed Republican Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, two Trump foes who have also criticized McCarthy for not leading the party away from the former president.
The riot committee held its inaugural hearing on July 27. It featured emotional testimony from law enforcement officers who fended off rioters who pushed their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6 following a rally led by Trump several blocks away.
Trump called on the crowd to protest the certification of Biden’s electoral victory, which was taking place in the House and the Senate.
Democrats and some Republicans blame the president for public statements ahead of and during the rally for putting their lives in danger.
Thompson’s records request seeks more tangible evidence that Trump, his family, and other administration officials played more of a role in facilitating the attack or trying to “delay, halt, or otherwise impeded the electoral count.”
The request seeks all documents related to planned protests, security at the Capitol, and a comment Trump made on Sept. 29 calling on the far-right group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
Democrats have accused Trump of sending some kind of signal to the group during the September presidential debate.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump responded to a question about white extremists. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the Left because this is not a right-wing problem.”
While Democrats hone in on Trump, House Republicans say Pelosi is steering the committee away from taking a closer look at how throngs of protesters were able to overwhelm the D.C. Metropolitan Police and the Capitol Police so quickly and flood the Capitol while lawmakers were in session.
Republicans believe Pelosi was warned about the threat level but rejected an offer from the National Guard and did not take appropriate action to train and equip police to protect the building. However, the responsibility was shared with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican.
“Apparently, they don’t want that information,” McCarthy said.
