The House select committee investigating the events surrounding the U.S. Capitol riot has formalized a path to share witness transcripts and evidence with the Justice Department according to chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).
“We've put a template together for sharing information, sharing it with Justice. My understanding is, there's general agreement on it,” Thompson told POLITICO.
The new agreement is a major development as the DOJ's probe into Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election results enters a more public phase.
Federal investigators have sought to access the congressional committee's 1,000-plus witness interview transcripts since April, but until now the select committee had refused. However, there is now greater urgency for the DOJ to investigate Trump's closest allies following the conclusion of the panel's most high-profile round of public hearings.
In a wide-ranging interview, Thompson said the select committee is entering an intense period of closed-door work to handle “housekeeping” matters — such as how to handle the five GOP members of Congress the panel subpoenaed but who have refused to comply. He said the panel is still mulling decisions about whether to formally request testimony from Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
He also said he anticipates an August release of a National Guard-focused report detailing the security mistakes that contributed to the violence at the Capitol.
Thompson had previously floated the prospect of sharing evidence with DOJ “in camera” — a process that would require federal investigators to visit the select committee offices and review transcripts without keeping them.
However, Thompson admitted that the in-camera review is unlikely due to work complexities.
He added that DOJ is aware of the identities of the witnesses who have testified to the select panel and can use that knowledge to request specific transcripts of information. Thompson has previously suggested that the department had expressed a particular interest in evidence related to false electors that Trump deployed as part of a broader strategy to overturn the election results.
Thompson reiterated that the committee ultimately intends to make the bulk of its information public. “All this is produced for the most part by taxpayer dollars, at some point the whole world will have access to it,” he said.
However, Rep. Thompson noted there is a concern over the DOJ obtaining the materials. Prosecutors are obligated by law to share evidence with defendants that may bear on their cases.
“There's a concern — and I'm not a lawyer — if you give them something and there's something in there that impacts a case they're looking at, they have to let the other side know,” Thompson noted.
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I find it interesting they have spent so much time and costs to find something wrong with Trump and yet they have spent no time researching and finding the truth about the Russian hoax. Why? We know that was made up.
I am so disgusted with this committee I can bare!y form words that will show how disgusted I am. There is a faux president supposed!y running this country who can’t think straight let alone speak straight and who sniff young girls a d touches then inappropriately and you are doing nothing! There is a vice president who couldn’t get enough votes and dropped out of the race for president because she couldn’t get enough votes, who tackles insanely at everything, speaks word salads that mean nothing and has failed at everything. There is and old woman who is speaker of the house who can’t talk without her hands, slurs her words speaks in sentences no one can understand and should be removed for insider trading and you do nothing except excoriated a man who turned this country around to give us some peace of mind and all you seem to want to do is impeach 45 according to Maxine Waters who is yet another winner in TBE democrat party (huge sarcasm). This is without mention Schumer and Schiff, the dumb and dumber double act of nothingness. Where are your brains? Oh don’t tell me, you lost them!!!!!!!!!
This is a disease called TrumpPox. It is only transmitted among liberal Democrats who hate Trump for no other reason than he was a good president. They can’t stand the thought of four more years of success under Trump. About as much as we hate the thought of one more day of Joe Biden.
Change that from good to great President, best in a century.
Well looks like the LIARS Jan 6th Committee thinks they are a Legal Power !
It is not even a Legally Constructed Committee as to the Rules of the House !
Now Biden’s criminal DOJ has been turned loose to take the LIES of the Criminal Committee and have another Witch Hunt on a Real President Donald Trump !
Donald Trump is INNOCENT and it is time for the Communistic Democrats to STFU !
I hope the Republicans take control of the House and Senate and they have a field day at the Democrats Expense sending them all to Prison for being a pack of TRAITORS !
Let me get this straight. The “show trial” party of Congress wants DOJ of the executive branch to investigate Trump on the basis of what its select committee learned during their totally one-sided Jan. 6 investigation that was conducted without participation of the Republican Party and any due process whatsoever. Aside from how such a proposal violates the separation of powers clause in the Constitution, the “facts” that this congressional select committee presumably unearthed would never withstand the test of due process making the whole thing a waste of time and precious government resources. Nothing like giving the Democrats a sound shellacking in the midterms to demonstrate how much the Dems are out of touch with the vast majority of Americans.
Not to mention the wasted amount of our tax payer dollars for something that is nothing more than a hateful Get Trump!
Gee, that radical angry black guy running that farce kangaroo hearing says he doesn’t think they should give the DOJ all the info they collected because then the DOJ would have to provide all that info to anyone they might want to investigate. If that doesn’t tell you just how phony this whole hearing mess really is.
“Federal investigators have sought to access the congressional committee’s 1,000-plus witness interview transcripts since April, but until now the select committee had refused.”
That sounds like obstruction of justice, don’t you think? Except of course for one thing. The J6 committee hasn’t actually charged anyone of a crime in relation to January 6th–much less provided a referral of a crime to DOJ or the FBI.
You Democrats have been trying to get rid of Trump before he ever took office and here, he isn’t in office, and you are still trying to get him out of the way. The only reason you are doing this is not because he is guilty of anything, you and your people are afraid of Trump, and you know what he will do is for the good of this county and its people which you and yours don’t have any concern for other than destroy this country for your own good.
Love to switch documents & give fake ones to J6 Comm
Id be so funny
Wait wait wait — why not share the evidence with the American people also. Sharing evidence between 2 organizations that are equally corrupt, equally as phony, equally as biased, equally anti-Trump and anti-America does nothing but hides the truth and muddies the water. If the illegitimate j6 committee really had something other than hearsay,lies and fantasy world crap it would be out already. Just another scam waste of taxpayers’ money.
This continues to be a ONE SIDED investigation without cross examination and limiting access.