The Democrat-led Jan. 6 Committee has been accused of suspicious actions in regards to its handling of files related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol incursion. The panel, which was hand-picked by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi when Democrats controlled the House, has been found to have deleted and encrypted files just days before the GOP took control of the House, according to a new report.
Fox News reported that the House Administration Committee’s oversight subcommittee, helmed by Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, discovered that 117 files were deleted on Jan. 1, 2023, right before the deadline for Pelosi’s panel to share all of its information with the newly GOP-controlled panel. These files have since been recovered by a digital forensics team that was hired to scrape the hard drives.
Loudermilk expressed concern about the panel’s apparent attempts to hide certain documents from the public. “It’s obvious that Pelosi’s Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation,” he said. “It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules.”
Democratic Rep. Thompson of Mississippi and then-Republican Rep. Cheney of Wyoming were the chairman and vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee.
Loudermilk has sent a letter to Thompson demanding access to the recovered files. In the letter, he noted that Thompson had previously admitted that the committee did not properly archive all of its records, as required by House rules. Thompson had sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security, but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House.
The congressman also raised questions about the recovered files, noting that one of them disclosed the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived by the Select Committee. He also pointed out that most of the recovered files are password-protected, making it impossible to determine their contents. Loudermilk has requested a list of passwords for all password-protected files created by the Select Committee so that his committee can properly access and archive them.
Loudermilk emphasized that his investigation is now entering a new phase and has the full support of Johnson. He has also requested full unredacted and unedited transcripts of White House and Department of Homeland Security staff who were interviewed by the Pelosi-picked panel.
The representative also noted that other files, specifically videotapes of depositions, have also gone missing. This development raises concerns about the accuracy of the remaining transcripts, as some witnesses have already submitted revisions to their original testimony.
The American people have the right to see and determine what actually happened on January 6th — with the facts, not a predetermined narrative.
As our investigation continues, we’ll keep working to uncover only the truth. @BrookeSingman https://t.co/DrDcu2pn1S
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) January 15, 2024
As the investigation continues, Loudermilk and his team remain committed to uncovering the truth about what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, and ensuring that the American people have access to all the facts, rather than a predetermined narrative.