Two Republican Representatives on Wednesday during a conference call hosted by the Conservative Political Action Committee blasted the January 6 Commission led by House Democrats for harassing former President Donald Trump's officials over lies that were already disproven.
Breitbart reported that Indiana Representative Jim Banks and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan reacted to the harassment received by former White House staffers who were subpoenaed by the House of Representatives Select Committee out of doing their jobs as employees.
Banks revealed that the House Select Committee sent subpoenas to 45 individuals who are accused of involvement in the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Of the said subpoena recipients, only five were actually part of groups that broke in the Capitol. While 18 are former staffers who were doing their jobs that day as part of the organizing committee of Trump's Save America Rally.
"So about 10 percent of the subpoenas have been sent to the people responsible for the violence that day," Banks said.
"(Their) only crime was organizing or speaking at a legal and permitted political protest. That is an unprecedented abuse of power by Congress," he stressed, pertaining to the 18 recipients.
The House Democrats claim that the said staffers did an "inside job" such that the break-in at the Capitol on January 6 was orchestrated. Banks rebutted such claims and pointed to the FBI's findings that the group of people who got in the building acted spontaneously.
The said FBI findings also showed that there was little to no evidence on the break-in being part of Trump's plot to overturn the election, lies that were purported by the media. Banks also reminded that there was "internal security breakdown" that added to the Capitol break-in.
"It's all based on a conspiracy theory. According to the committee, January 6 was an inside job. It was an attempted coup disguised as a political rally that was secretly orchestrated by President Trump and his closest advisors. That is a lie and as all of you know, it's crazy," Banks said.
"Because the media parrots (made) the insane lie, it still has consequences," he added.
An unnamed GOP aide disclosed that the January 6 Committee also sent subpoenas to telephone companies to extract information on some of those who were subpoenaed. While other aides reveal that the Democrats are keeping information from Republicans on what their committee is doing, highlighting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Republicans referred by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to serve in the January 6 Committee.
McCarthy thereafter also announced he will not appoint Republicans to the Committee considering Pelosi's refusal of his recommendations. The committee's composition is made of seven Democrats and two hand-picked Republicans: Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney and Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger.
"Our understanding at this point is they have not subpoenaed [congressional] member information, but they are subpoenaing telephone records of private American citizens," the aide said.
As such, Jordan pointed out the January 6 Committee's actions are merely "political" and as a means to distract the public from the high inflation the country is facing and the failures of President Joe Biden's Administration.
"I think everyone understands that this is now just a complete political operation by the Democrats. It's just completely political. They don't want to get to the main question, which is why wasn't the Capitol properly secured that day?" Jordan said.
"What the heck else are they going to talk about? Are they going to talk about the 30-year-high inflation rate? Are they going to talk about the border that's a complete mess? Are they going to talk about the price of gasoline? Are they going to talk about crime up in every major urban area? Are they going to talk about how they can't even pass their agenda?" he added.
