(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) House Democrats’ partisan Jan. 6 committee took one last petty swipe at former President Donald Trump even as several of its members lost their elections over its brazenly partisan kangaroo witch hunt.
The committee voted unanimously to refer Trump to the Justice Department for charges including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, making a false statement to the federal government, and conspiracy to defraud the federal government—despite the fact that Trump was already acquitted by the U.S. Senate of several of those charges.
Although it now falls to the discretion of the DOJ as to whether it would pursue the charges, Attorney General Merrick Garland has proven himself to be an unabashedly partisan attack dog with little regard for the rule of law and the constitutional concept of “equal protection” for all.
Trump already is the subject of a sweeping special-counsel investigation led by corrupt partisan prosecutor Jack Smith.
“Accountability … can only be found in the criminal justice system,” claimed J6 committee chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice and that the agencies and the institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information that we provided to aid in their work.”
In a provocative move that is likely to invite fallout in the next congressional term, the committee also announced it would refer the presumptive incoming speaker, the likely House Judiciary chair and two top leaders of the Freedom Caucus for ethics violations after violating longstanding protocol to subpoena them.
The four Republican lawmakers were Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye denounced the referral as a “partisan and political stunt,” Politico reported.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the lead impeachment manager in Democrats’ second failed impeachment attempt against former President Donald Trump, suggested that the GOP ethics committee likely to investigate the four members would be “partisan” if it failed to take seriously the committee’s wild and unprecedented allegations.
“I don’t know what the Ethics Committee will do. I don’t even know who it’s composed of at this point,” Raskin said.
However, “I certainly hope the Ethics Committee will not regard this as a partisan matter,” he added, while hinting that Democrats could be laying the stage for a partisan talking point ahead of the 2024 election. “It raises a profound problem that we have to solve for the 117th Congress, the 118th Congress and for all future Congresses.”
The J6 committee attempted a shotgun approach in issuing subpoenas to leading Republicans, some of whom had no direct involvement with and were not present at the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 uprising.
Its glitzy prime-time hearnings, produced by Hollywood, failed to get any great traction in terms of public interest and ratings but may have helped the Biden administration develop its only campaign pitch during the 2022 midterms, helping to break what appeared to be an inevitable red wave by claiming Republicans were a threat to democracy.
On May 12, Thomson announced that the seven-member panel comprising five Democrats and two non-Democrats, announed it was targeting the four GOP members as well as Rep. Mo Biggs, R-Ala., who will not be returning to Congress next term after a failed bid to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby.
“The Select Committee has learned that several of our colleagues have information relevant to our investigation into the attack on January 6th and the events leading up to it,” he said.
“… Regrettably, the individuals receiving subpoenas today have refused and we’re forced to take this step to help ensure the committee uncovers facts concerning January 6th,” he continued. “We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty, and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done.”
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers.
