What's going on with the investigation into January 6th?

[Ohioboy]

Everything I'm finding dates back to the end of August when communication companies were asked to preserve records and McCarthy illegally threatened said companies.

What the hell?

[jimfields33]

1. Isn't this their third day back to work? Congress was in recess for six weeks

I’m sure more will be done soon.

[StarfishSaver]

3. Congress was in recess, but the Select Committee continued its work throughout

[jimfields33]

6. True, but I'm sure they have to show leadership the work they did

before releasing anything to the public.

[Bev54]

12. Yes, the staff continued the work during recess and now has to present

their findings to the committee, to decide the next move.

[Johnny2X2X]

2. The meat will be next year

I believe the Dems are saving the public hearings for 2022, an election year.

[gab13by13]

5. How long will it take

to get someone to show up for the hearing? Don't they need to set a precedence for people to honor their subpoenas? The courts don't always act quickly.

[StarfishSaver]

7. Chairman Thompson said they plan to issue subpoenas soon.

But subpoenas can't be rushed. They are issued after a lot of other investigation is completed.

I don't think they'll have the same kind of trouble getting compliance that they had in the past. When Trump was president, he controlled a lot more of the process and could use the powers of the presidency to protect recalcitrant witnesses and drag things out - and his Justice Department not only didn't lift a finger to compel compliance, it participated in the obstruction and delays. He doesn't have the same powers now, so this should go quicker and more smoothly than before.

[StarfishSaver]

4. Here's an update

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/20/thompson-cheney-jan-6-probe-512604

[gab13by13]

8. I would hope that the select committee "gets along"

or why would they join in the first place? Being chummy is fine but getting to the bottom of the insurrection is the goal, not making new friends. So Liz and Bennie are going on an elk hunt, not the news I was looking for, with all due respect.

I see that Gym Jordan and others have formed their own committee to counter our select committee.

I have a serious question for you since I respect your expertise. Wouldn't it be a good strategy to request someone to appear before the committee early on to find out if the committee is going to have to subpoena everyone? I say this this because going to the courts takes time and wouldn't a favorable court decision set a precedence for future subpoenas? I understand that every person is a different situation but court decisions take time.

[StarfishSaver]

9. Great question

It's possible they will want to litigate and get a ruling on certain issues - for example, whether some communications are covered by executive privilege - sooner than later. However, such a ruling would not necessarily apply to all of the witnesses since the validity of an executive privilege claim is very fact dependent (unless, for example, the court were to rule that no conversation Trump had in relation to the post-election was covered, which would be a stretch).

So, yes, they may want to move forward with subpoenas soon in order to have time to deal with any pushback - it looks like they will be issuing some in the coming weeks.

But witness testimony has to be handled very strategically. These investigations are like big jigsaw puzzles and witnesses are called when they are needed, not just to test the waters. Contrary to what some people think, public witness testimony is a very small part of the overall investigation and they are usually brought in either very early to help frame issues for the public - as was done when the Committee heard testimony from the law enforcement officers involved in defending the Capitol on January 6 - or brought in much later after a substantial amount of information has been gathered through the committee's investigation. Much of the evidence they need is obtained from friendly witnesses who provide information and documents without being called to sit in front of the committee on television.

[luv2fly]

10. They found time to interrogate Blinken over Afghanistan

But 1/6 seems more and more like a distant memory, and most here at DU I assume actually care. Much of the American populace cares not one bit, and closing in on 9 months since the failed insurrection, I can't imagine how you get them to care going forward.

[gab13by13]

11. It reminded me of Benghazi a little bit.

It was good in a way to have Blinken explain away right wing narratives, but yeah, I felt the same way. I believe they are going to continue with the Afghanistan withdrawal hearings which will irk me. I understand the tragic loss of lives during our withdrawal but stopping a suicide bomber is damn hard to do. IMO the withdrawal was a big success and as a matter of fact Americans are still being flown out of Afghanistan as president Biden promised would happen.

The narrative that the withdrawal was a disaster is bullshit, IMO.

[StarfishSaver]

13. That was a different committee

Blinken testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee which has oversight responsibility over Afghanistan but has no jurisdiction over the January 6 investigation.

The House Select Committee is the committee of jurisdiction over January 6 and didn't interrogate Blinken or hold any hearings on Afghanistan.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. Educate yourself on emptywheel.net

Emptywheel has detailed, knowledgeable legal analysis of the January 6 prosecutions, congressional investigations and other Trump legal woes, covering boring but important stories that often don’t make the evening news.

Congress has been on recess since August, so no additional hearings since the first one. I’m guessing they’re focused on the debt ceiling, infrastructure and voting rights, and will return to January 6 hearings once there is room in the headlines and they don’t have to compete for time on the nightly news.

[brooklynite]

15. How long do your Congressional Investigations take?

There's a lot more to them than public hearings.

[Ohioboy]

17. I'll be the first to admit I can be naive,

but we have lawmakers who may very well have taken part in an insurrection. Those lawmakers remain in power. How can that be allowed to go on for any amount of time?

We have a minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who has openly threatened companies not to comply with the investigation. How much investigation does it take to see that he has committed obstruction? Why is his ass not in trouble for that alone?

We've seen the impeachment process not work in this country. Now, we have a top GOP leader threatening companies not to comply with an investigation into an insurrection, and he is so far getting away with it.

In the meantime, the GOP, along with their propaganda machine media is doing their best to erase the whole thing.

Sorry if I'm impatient on this, but at least McCarthy should be feeling some heat for what he has done. That's my opinion.

[Hotler]

16. Nothing... I thought it would be important enough to cancel their 6-week vacation

I guess not. Oh well.......

[StarfishSaver]

18. A few points:

First, It's a District Work Period when the House recesses from Washington for so that members can go back to their districts to interact with their constituents. It's interesting that people often complain that they're representatives are caught up in the beltway and out of touch with their home districts - but when they go back to their home district people complain that they're on vacation.

Second, committee work continues during district work periods. In fact, they usually get a lot more done because they are not distracted and interrupted by votes, caucus meetings, hearings, etc. Just because they're not having hearings doesn't mean that plenty of work isn't being done.