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Jan. 6 panel chairman: Trump will be part of inquiry

Congressman Bennie Thompson

The chairman of the House select committee on Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol said the panel’s investigation will include former US President Donald Trump.

In an interview with the Guardian, Congressman Bennie Thompson, who also serves as the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, reiterated that he is looking for a wide-ranging investigation that covers the former president and his prominent allies on Capitol Hill.

“The issues of January 6 are one of the most salient challenges we have as a nation, to make sure that this democracy does not fall prey to people who don’t really identify with democracy,” Thompson said.

He also noted that the committee is curious about the telephone conversations Trump has had on that specific day with the congressmen, especially House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

“If somebody spoke to the president on January 6, I think it would be important for our committee to know what was said. I can’t imagine you talk about anything else to the president on January 6,” he said.

Earlier this month, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed eight lawmakers to serve on the select committee, including Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who has become the most prominent critic of Trump and his role in provoking the Jan. 6 events.

The move came after the Senate Republicans, fearing political damage, blocked the creation of a 9/11-style commission.

Later, Kevin McCarthy also nominated five members of his party, all of them from Trump’s staunch supporters, to serve on the panel. Jim Jordan, Jim Banks, Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong and Troy Nehls are the names McCarthy’s office announced in a statement on July 19.

On January 6, Trump incited his own supporters, including members of Proud Boys, to storm the US Capitol building, where lawmakers were in the process of confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives a historic second time for the instigation of the attack.

The protest resulted in the death of at least five people, including a police officer who was guarding the Congress building.


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