So, here’s the headline, this one from the Washington Post:
Committee votes unanimously to subpoena Trump’s testimony
The Post story begins by saying this:
The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, voted Thursday to subpoena testimony and documents from former president Donald Trump, a dramatic culmination of its year-and-a-half-long investigation, and a sign that the committee wants to continue its work beyond this Congress.
“This is a question about accountability to the American people,” Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said ahead of the vote. “He must be accountable.”
Stop. Full stop.
If, as many predict, the midterm elections produce a Republican-controlled House, then the very first investigation the GOP House should begin is of … the Jan. 6 Committee.
Every member of the committee, every staff member, every document and text and email — every last bit of anything should be subpoenaed, investigated, and — where appropriate — referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
What this committee has been about from its very inception is getting Trump. Nothing more, nothing less.
That is why — exactly why — Speaker Nancy Pelosi violated centuries of House tradition and lifted the authority of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to appoint the GOP’s members. With Pelosi’s taking over the minority leader’s job to appoint two viscerally anti-Trump “Republicans” to the committee.
This isn’t a committee of Congress; this is a lynch mob. It must never be allowed to happen again.
The two “Republicans” who participated in this Stalin-esque show trial have been dealt with by their constituents. Wyoming Republicans turned out in massive numbers to defeat the GOP ringleader of this authoritarian mob, Rep. Liz Cheney, by an almost-40-point landslide in the GOP primary. Illinois Republicans have watched with satisfaction as the other “Republican” on the committee — Rep. Adam Kinzinger — was redistricted out of his seat.
But with a GOP takeover, it will be time for holding the members of this committee accountable.
The United States Congress is the last place in the world that should be allowed to have members turn it into an authoritarian playground. It has attacked the free-press rights of members of the media, releasing private correspondence of media stars like Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. It has demanded that private communications companies turn over the private correspondence — texts, emails, and phone records — of private American citizens.
Which brings us back to the news that the committee has now issued a subpoena to Trump — the man who asked his supporters on Jan. 6 to protest “peacefully and patriotically.” Meanwhile, inside, Democratic members of Congress who went out of their way to protest the electoral votes of 2004, 2008, and 2016 were all on board for demanding that the votes from states whose results were in question be counted — and counted then and there.
The simple truth here is that the issuance of this Jan. 6 Committee subpoena to the former president should be turned around the moment Republicans take control of the House — with subpoenas issued to every committee member and every committee staff member, and subpoenas issued for every text, email, and phone call record for all of them.
And this authoritarian treatment of a former president of the United States — or anyone else in America — should never be allowed to happen again.
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