The Democrats running the Congressional Jan. 6 committee will seek records from multiple lawmakers as part of an inquiry into the Capitol riot.
“We'll look at everything that will give us information on what happened on January 6,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters on Aug. 23 when asked if the committee will be asking telecommunications companies for lawmakers’ records.
Thompson said the committee will send letters out to major telecommunications and social media companies. He did not rule out eventually utilizing subpoenas. The committee had not yet interviewed any members of Congress, according to Thompson.
“We have quite an exhaustive list of people," he said when asked if the committee will be requesting records from members of the Trump family.
“I won’t tell you who they are, but it’s several hundred people that make up the list of individuals we are planning to contact,” Thompson said.
The committee is likely to pursue call records for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), both of whom confirmed having calls with then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6.
House Democrats impeached Trump over the event on Jan. 6, alleging that he incited an insurrection. The Senate has since exonerated Trump.
Democrats and compliant media outlets have long pointed to selective snippets of Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 to insinuate that he directed the mob which attacked the Capitol. In the oft-quoted speech, the president told supporters to make their voices heard “peacefully and patriotically.”
Federal authorities have arrested hundreds of people on charges related to the Capitol breach as part of an unprecedented law enforcement blitz.
The House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack consists of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
