WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced Wednesday the creation of a new select subcommittee to investigate events before and after Jan. 6, 2021.
“House Republicans are proud of our work so far in exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated January 6 Select Committee during the 117th Congress, but there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said in a statement.
The subcommittee’s mission is to “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people,” Johnson said.
The speaker didn't make clear what false narratives he alleges were made by the original select committee.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., will chair the new subcommittee, which will fall under the jurisdiction of the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Notably, Loudermilk had given a tour of the Capitol to people the day before the insurrection, which included a man who was caught on video, later released by the committee that investigated the attack, making violent verbal threats against top Democratic lawmakers during the attack.
The rioter who made the threats, Trevor Hallgren, “took pictures of hallways and staircases” during Loudermilk’s tour, according to the final report released by the Jan. 6 select committee.
In a statement Wednesday, Loudermilk said, “What happened at the Capitol that day was the result of a series of intelligence, security, and leadership failures at multiple levels within numerous entities.”
The first Jan. 6 committee investigated the Capitol attack as part of a nearly two-year bipartisan inquiry when Democrats controlled the House.
Before leaving office Monday, Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to all lawmakers and staff members who served on the committee, including its chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair, former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
As chair of the House Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight, which investigated the select committee in the last Congress, Loudermilk said in a report that the FBI should investigate Cheney for her role on the select committee, saying without evidence that she had likely broken "numerous federal laws."
The first select committee held a series of 10 hearings in 2022 that featured testimony from a variety of witnesses who shed light on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and the attack on the Capitol itself.
More than two years later, Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants on Monday, the first day of his second term.
Republicans have dismissed or downplayed the events of Jan. 6 in recent years, with some even falsely suggesting that it was actually members of the group antifa who attacked the Capitol. Trump, who was impeached by the House after the attack and indicted by the federal government for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, has said that it was a “day of love.”
The announcement of the subcommittee came hours after Johnson defended Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, including violent individuals convicted of assaulting police officers, describing the pardons as an effort to turn the page.
“We’re not looking backward, we’re looking forward,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday.
