Republican-led January 6 investigation to be its own committee this Congress, GOP lawmaker says

GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia posed with House Speaker Mike Johnson for a photograph to mark the start of the next Congress and left with a guarantee that his investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol will be formalized as a new committee.

GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia posed with House Speaker Mike Johnson for a photograph to mark the start of the next Congress and left with a guarantee that his investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol will be formalized as a new committee. The move solidifies the Republican Party’s effort to rewrite the narrative surrounding January 6 as a permanent fixture of its investigative agenda. It’s part of a broader effort from Republicans to continue several GOP-led investigations from the previous Congress now that the party will control both chambers of Capitol Hill and the White House. The details of the new committee are still being worked out, Loudermilk told CNN, but one of the options would be to formulate it in a way that gives Johnson more control over who is appointed to the panel, known as a select committee, and the direction of its work. Creating a new committee to elevate Loudermilk’s work, which included a report recommending the FBI prosecute GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney, keeps the Republican efforts to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from bearing any responsibility for the violence on January 6, front and center. “It was so singularly focused that basically Trump created this entire problem,” Loudermilk said of the former January 6 select committee that Cheney helped lead. “When in reality, it was a multitude of failures at different levels.” But even Loudermilk said he understands that referencing January 6 in the new panel’s title could send the wrong message.