Tuesday, February 15, 2022

The January 6 Committee vs the DOJ

I read and hear a lot of worrying about the question of whether the DOJ is actually investigating anyone in the Trump administration or the GOP congress regarding organizing and inciting the January 6 insurrection. Considering the dangers of interference, I wonder if the DOJ might simply be waiting for the January 6 House investigation to complete and present its work to the American public. Here's why...
[D]efense attorney and well-respected former House general counsel Stanley Brand told the New York Times about the Jan. 6 select committee: “Having lived through and being a part of every major congressional investigation of the past 50 years from Iran-contra to Whitewater to everything else, this is the mother of all investigations and a quantum leap for Congress in a way I’ve never seen before.”

[...]

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just had a very telling little meltdown on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” ranting against the make-up of the House Jan. 6 select committee staff. His big concern? The committee has brought in too many former prosecutors. This is not a criminal investigation, he says.

Jordan’s criticism is both irrelevant and ignorant; perhaps, more generously, he’s playing provocateur.

The committee has staffed up with 14 or so ex-prosecutors because: a) the task is vast; b) they have the resources to hire well-trained lawyers who have handled complex federal cases; and c) typical congressional staffers just can’t handle such a colossal undertaking. In other words, Jordan and other Trump World lackeys are facing their worst possible nightmare in the mother of all congressional investigations.

[...]

In addition to hiring investigators, [past] select committees always brought in outside legal talent, usually on loan from major law firms. Michael Chertoff was brought in by Chairman Alphonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) for the Whitewater investigation; Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass) of the Senate POW/MIA committee brought in Boston lawyer Bill Codinha, and so on. They brought in other attorneys as well.

But not 14 of them.

  The Hill
Those 14 ex-prosecutors can be doing a lot of work the DOJ can use in potential future charges.  Anyway, I hope to God the DOJ is or plans to investigate those at the top of an attempt to overthrow the government. Jim Jordan is one of those.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  In numbers...



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