The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up business this week before the incoming Republican majority has a chance to end it.
On Monday, the committee will meet in person to tie up loose ends, and a final report is expected to be released to the public shortly thereafter. Here is what you can expect, and what big reveals lay ahead.
How did we get here, again?
After the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the Capitol, there was initially hope for an independent, bipartisan committee to investigate the riot. Republican leaders themselves voiced support for such an examination, but when bipartisan legislation to establish the commission was actually under consideration, there was only modest support from House Republicans. And in the Senate, Mitch McConnell worked his tail off to ensure the bill wouldn’t pass.
The House Democratic majority then voted to create its own select committee with the usual mix of Democrats and Republicans. When House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy nominated two of his more MAGA members to the committee, though, Speaker Nancy Pelosi nixed the choices, and McCarthy responded by withdrawing all of his picks.
Pelosi nominated two anti-Trump Republicans, Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, to serve on the committee in their stead.
We regurgitate all of this information because the committee’s setup—seven members of the majority and two members of the minority who despise their party’s de facto leader—has been unusual, and has allowed for this select committee to pursue its goals with unusual shared purpose. It has been swift and unified in issuing subpoenas, voting on contempt referrals, interviewing witnesses, and in presenting its findings to the public in a series of critically acclaimed television shows. The effectiveness of the committee’s efforts at capturing the public’s attention have led some Republicans to wonder whether McCarthy should have submitted a B-list of names to join the committee to serve the vital role of muddying things up. That’s Trump’s view.
What’s the schedule this week?
The committee will hold what is likely its last meeting on Monday, Dec. 19, at 1 p.m. It will give the public a presentation previewing the report’s findings and vote on the report itself and on any referrals they may have, criminal or otherwise. The report is expected to come out on Wednesday, or perhaps sooner. Additional materials—things like interview transcripts—would come after that.
Oooh, criminal referrals. Who’s heading to the hoosegow?
We don’t know either who they are referring or to whom they would be referred. Among those the committee is reportedly considering for criminal referrals to the Department of Justice: Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and coup lawyer John Eastman. And, as Politico reported, the committee could make additional referrals to non-DOJ disciplinary bodies for various other scoundrels caught up in the scoundrel web, whether it be the House Ethics Committee, agency inspectors general, or the Federal Election Commission.
A criminal referral also does not mean an indictment. It’s just that—a referral—with which the Justice Department could do as it sees fit.
How will the report break down?
The report is expected to have eight official chapters, plus various footnotes and appendices of juicy details the committee wishes to publish. The chapters, as Politico also reported (they’ve been all over this thing!), would “align closely with the evidence the panel unveiled during its public hearings in June and July.” The themes of the eight chapters include “Trump’s effort to sow distrust in the results of the election” and “Trump’s effort to summon supporters to Washington who later fueled the Jan. 6 mob.”
It sounds, in other words, like this “Trump” guy could be a key player in the caper.
The extent to which it focuses exclusively on Trump and not other issues, like law enforcement or intelligence failures, has been a potent subject of internal bickering. As NBC News reported on Nov. 11: “Staff members of the Jan. 6 committee were informed last week that the committee’s final report would focus largely on former President Donald Trump and much less on findings about failures by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the lead up to the attack.”
Those upset with that choice have pointed to the influence of Vice Chair Liz Cheney who, despite hating Trump, continues to be a Republican. A late November statement from her spokesman, Jeremy Adler, shot back at those complaining about Cheney rather bluntly:
“Some staff have submitted subpar material for the report that reflects long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement, Republicans, and sociological issues outside the scope of the Select Committee’s work,” Adler said. “She won’t sign onto any ‘narrative’ that suggests Republicans are inherently racist or smears men and women in law enforcement, or suggests every American who believes God has blessed America is a white supremacist.”
We’ll see if Democratic staffers are able to slip any transgressive references into the footnotes during final revisions.
How much juicy new information could it contain?
A lot! What we know from the committee has largely come in the form of revelations in public presentations or from tidbits scooped up by news organizations along the way. But the committee had conducted over 1,000 interviews by early summer, and continued conducting interviews until very recently. It claimed that more people, and more leads, were coming out of the woodwork following their televised presentations over the summer.
Consider what just one news outlet has reported this week. Talking Points Memo obtained the 2,319 text messages to and from former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, which he had turned over to the committee. Since last week, TPM has been publishing stories off of the cache with previously unreleased information. If there’s that much new information from previously unreleased Meadows texts alone, imagine what the committee itself has to work with.
How will I be able to read the Jan. 6 report?
You have a few options here. One is to read the free, public report funded by your taxpayer dollars that should be available online Wednesday. Other publications will be releasing free audiobook versions of it.
You could also spend real money to purchase a book copy of this free report. You just have to pick your favorite foreword! Random House is releasing a copy with a foreword from committee member Adam Schiff. The New Yorker’s doing one with its editor, David Remnick. Ooh, and here’s one with a foreword from MSNBC’s Ari Melber. If you want that special Slate touch, you can mail a printout of the report to our own Ben Mathis-Lilley, who will (maybe) put it in a Lisa Frank binder along with a foreword about the college football playoff semifinals.
Or you could read it for free on an iPad.
