A group of House Republicans agreed they would like to keep the Jan. 6 commission in play if they win back the majority in the midterm elections, saying Tuesday that they will use it to ask Democrats key questions the GOP was not able to press them over.
The Daily Caller first obtained a memo, spearheaded by North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn and also signed by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs. Meanwhile, other House Republicans have already expressed skepticism about keeping the Jan. 6 commission, such as Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Georgia Rep. Drew Ferguson and Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, according to Politico.
“There won’t be one,” Ferguson told Politico.
“I don’t think it’d be called the Jan. 6 committee,” Buck said.
“I’m probably in the camp of: Just let it go away. I don’t want to waste our time dealing with it anymore,” Crenshaw told the outlet.
Other Republicans such as Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks said the decision ultimately comes down to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“Look, it’s gonna depend upon what Leader McCarthy wants,” Davis told Politico.
“When Republicans are in the majority, and Kevin McCarthy is the speaker, that’s probably a conversation for another day,” Banks said. “I’m not aware of what his intention is.”
Cawthorn told the Daily Caller in an exclusive interview in late January that Republicans should keep the Jan. 6 commission if they take back the House. In Tuesday’s memo, he, Gohmert and Biggs mention Ray Epps, whom the Jan. 6 committee said in January that they had interviewed. The three lawmakers also said they want to ask what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about the Capitol grounds leading up to Jan. 6.
The Select Committee is aware of unsupported claims that Ray Epps was an FBI informant based on the fact that he was on the FBI Wanted list and then was removed from that list without being charged.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) January 11, 2022
“The Committee has interviewed Epps. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan 5th or 6th or at any other time, & that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency,” a tweet from the Jan. 6 committee said, adding that he was on the FBI Wanted list and then was removed from the list without being charged.
“There have been a lot of calls on the right to just get rid of the Jan. 6 commission, when we take power back. I actually disagree with that,” Cawthorn told the Daily Caller in January. “We should investigate what the true origins of this were. There’s a man named Ray Epps who I believe has ties to some federal groups. There are a lot of situations where we heard that the FBI and other agencies had prior knowledge that some of these things were going to be happening.”
“I’d love to see some of the footage of exactly what happened inside of the Capitol. I believe the reason they’re not wanting to release that footage is because, I suspect, there are several actors who are involved inside of this riot and inside of what happened on January 6 that they don’t want to have named,” he continued. In the letter, Cawthorn says Republicans have a number of questions they would like to have answered and mentioned four specific ones:
- What did Nancy Pelosi know on the days leading up to and including January 6th about the resiliency of the Capitol grounds?
- How complicit is Nancy Pelosi in not fortifying the Capitol for the certification of the presidential election?
- What information and involvement did the FBI, CIA, or other intelligence agencies have, if any, in provoking the January 6th protests?
- Who is Ray Epps? Is he, or has he ever been, employed by a federal law enforcement agency?
READ THE LETTER:
Pelosi announced in late June that she would be establishing the select committee. The House then approved a resolution to form the committee weeks after Senate Republicans killed a bipartisan commission in late May. (RELATED: Sources: ‘Conversations’ Pelosi Had With Sgt At Arms About National Guard Presence Factored Into ‘Blender Of Decision Making’ That Led Up To Riot)
McCarthy announced his opposition to a Jan. 6 commission in May. McCarthy has said he would like the commission to investigate violence committed by Black Lives Matter activists and antifa throughout the summer of 2020, in addition to the Capitol riot.
The Daily Caller contacted McCarthy’s office about keeping the Jan. 6 commission around, to which an office spokesperson said: “You’ll see Republicans’ report that addresses both why the Capitol was left so unprepared and what policies need to change to ensure the Capitol is safe when it’s released.”
