In what seems to be one of the final actions, the members of the House January 6 Committee issued a warning to the White House that it will not be able to make sure of the confidentiality of certain witnesses.
Both Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) alongside Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) issued a letter out to Richard Sauber, the current special counsel to President Joe Biden, stating that they “fully share” a “concern for the safety, security, and reputations” of its witnesses in the wake of the panel breaking down and Republicans coming into control of the House this week.
Dated as of Dec. 30, the letter states that the committee went into an agreement with Sauber’s office to prepare a number of “personnel” who then made available “important information” to the members of the panel. Any other identifying information has been officially redacted from the version of the letter released to the public.
Within this agreement, the committee “would do its utmost” to safeguard the identities, but as we have seen in the first week of January 2023 the panel “will no longer exercise control of this material, and thus cannot ensure enforcement of the commitment to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of witnesses,” explained the letter.
In the wake of a year and a half of looking into the efforts to challenge the 2020 results and the Capitol riot, the January 6 committee finally released its summary report last month in which it issues a recommendation for charges against former President Donald Trump, and made public multiple dozens of witness materials. The panel also highlighted that the “vast majority” of these witness transcripts were made available online, as stated y Cheney and Thompson.
This past Tuesday, the various members of the House are slated to get together in order to carry out a vote for the next speaker. As of writing, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sits in a good position to win but has been having issuing locking in all of the needed votes to guarantee his ascension to the role.
While making efforts to bring over the remaining GOP holdouts, McCarthy revealed a brand new rules package for the Congress coming in that will mandate the “quick transfer of records” from the January 6th Committee to the House Administration Committee. McCarthy currently sits as just one of a number of House Republicans which have been recommended by the January 6 Committee for a series of ethics sanctions after openly defying a subpoena.
In the document sent to the White House, Cheney and Thompson have stated that official records from the committee will be sent out and archived in order to place them under the control of the National Archives in accordance with House rules. The letter goes further to state that transcripts are being issued for “appropriate review, timely return, and designation of instructions for proper handling by the National Archives.”
“During your review, we recommend that [redacted] provide for the official file that will reside with the Archives any necessary written guidance regarding the need for limitations on release or other sensitivities,” concluded the letter. “Our expectation is that the transcripts with such instructions will become part of the historical record of our investigation maintained by the National Archives.”
