Thoughts on the January 6 Committee
June 2022
The House January 6 Committee is trying to understand the attacks on the Capitol on January 6, and the efforts to overthrow the election of Joe Biden as the President of the United States. Democrats and Republicans on the Committee are working collaboratively. Many of the most compelling witnesses have been Republicans.
Among the Republican stalwarts testifying about the threats to our American Democracy have been the young Trump Administration staffer, Cassidy Hutchinson and the retired 4th Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig.
Judge Luttig was appointed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals by President George H.W. Bush and considered for the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. He is renowned as a legal scholar and a very conservative Justice of high integrity. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/06/16/jan-6-hearings-who-is-j-michael-luttig-the-conservative-judge-who-opposed-pence-overturning-2020-election/?sh=26ec9e2a7498 He clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia. His clerks among many others have included Senator Ted Cruz and attorney John Eastland who played important roles in Trump’s efforts to cling to the Presidency despite his defeat.
On January 4th and 5th, 2021, he advised Vice President Pence that he had no constitutional authority to overturn the results of the 2020 election as President Trump was demanding, and then he tweeted this sound legal advice to the world. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/18/former-judge-beat-trump-january-6-00010056
His testimony before the House January 6 Committee was: “A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, 2021, and our democracy today is on a knife’s edge.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/politics/read-luttig-statement/index.html He advised the Committee members “The former president’s accountability under the law for the riot on the United States Capitol on January 6 is incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American People and thereby steal America’s democracy from America herself.”
He urged the Republican Party to acknowledge squarely and forthrightly what had happened on January 6, and to ensure it never is repeated. “Over a year and a half later, in continued defiance of our democracy, both the former president and his political party allies still maintain that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him, despite all evidence -- all evidence now --that that is simply false. All the while, this false and reckless insistence that the former president won the 2020 presidential election has laid waste to Americans’ confidence in their national elections”. He urged the respected leaders of both parties to cease virulent, dishonest political rhetoric which he believes is destroying our nation from within.
Cassidy Hutchinson was a top assistant to Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff at the Trump White House. She is a young, highly effective, and loyal Republican who worked for some of the most conservative GOP leaders, such as Steve Scalise, Ted Cruz and Mark Meadows. She described her knowledge of the inner workings of the White House in the lead up, during, and after the events of January 6, the insurrection at the Capitol. https://www.c-span.org/video/?521387-1/sixth-hearing-investigation-capitol-attack From her testimony, it was clear that President Trump and Chief of Staff Meadows were aware in advance of the weapons being brought to the rally on the Ellipse and the Capitol, the plans to take over the Capitol and other government buildings, and the high potential for violence on January 6. She testified that after his speech on January 6 urging his followers to go the Capitol and “fight for Trump”, President Trump tried to go to the Capitol himself to lead his supporters in their efforts to overthrow his election defeat but was thwarted by the Secret Service who refused to drive him there because of the high potential for violence and their need to assure his safety.
At the other extreme are those individuals trying to hide and obscure from public oversight and scrutiny their own conduct and the Trump Campaign and Administration’s involvement with the events of January 6 and Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election. Too many staunch Trump allies and Trump Administration officials are asserting the 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/many-trump-insiders-pleaded-fifth-jan-6-probe-rcna34753 The 30 individuals taking the 5th include Trump world luminaries such as: John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Jeffrey Clark, and Alex Jones.
Others, including Chief of Staff Meadows and Trump strategist Steve Bannon, are invoking executive privilege to avoid testifying truthfully to Congress. https://www.lawfareblog.com/executive-privilege-and-jan-6-investigation
Still others, including Trump’s personal lawyers and his close Congressional allies, sought and did not receive Presidential pardons for their conduct in trying to overthrow our democracy. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-preemptive-pardon-requests-capitol-attack-2022-6
According to the witnesses already appearing before the Committee, White House Counsel Pat Cippolone tried to head off the worst illegalities of Trumpian chaos during this post-election, pre-inauguration period. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/29/1108798387/jan-6-committee-subpoenas-pat-cipollone-trumps-former-white-house-counsel He has been unwilling to be formally deposed or to testify under oath before the Committee and is just now being subpoenaed.
The American people deserve to know the full truth about Trump’s efforts to overthrow a free and fair election which ejected the President from his office. The public officials and all the lawyers involved have taken oaths to support and defend the US Constitution. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/3331; https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Oath-of-Office/ , and https://www.americanbar.org/groups/young_lawyers/publications/after-the-bar/professional-life/anatomy-of-our-oath/ The leadership of the Department of Justice and the White House Counsel’s office stood strong during this perilous time for our democracy, and many of them have been candid and forthcoming with the Congressional investigators. The stench of the bad apple attorneys, like a Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman or Rudy Giuliani, should not be allowed to discredit those attorneys and public servants with ethical backbones of titanium from Georgia to Arizona to Washington DC who performed so valiantly in resisting President Trump’s efforts to overthrow our democracy. We owe them enormous thanks for doing their jobs with the utmost integrity and their willingness to candidly discuss their experiences with Trump’s efforts to overthrow the rule of law, the Constitution and our very democracy. We have to recognize the enormous pressure upon them to dissemble, hide, or refuse to testify before the Committee and their courage in stepping forward.