GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, attacking the investigation as a Democrats’ “partisan witch hunts.”
Jordan, who was caught on video as he twisted himself into a pretzel and struggled to explain his communications with Donald Trump on January 6, has insisted that he has “nothing to hide.”
However, the far-right congressman appears to have something to hide, according to The New York Times.
“Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, joining a growing list of allies of former President Donald J. Trump who have adopted a hostile stance toward the panel’s questions,” The Times reported overnight.
Nearly three weeks ago, the bipartisan panel reached out to Jordan, not with a subpoena, but with a written request for information. But the Ohio lawmaker soon after appeared on Fox News to say that he won’t cooperate.
“I got real concerns about any committee that will take a document and alter it and present it to the American people — completely mislead the American people like they did last week,” he argued.
In reality, the committee did not actually mislead anyone and Jordan’s complaint was difficult to take seriously.
As noted by MSNBC, Jordan on Sunday claimed in a written response that the request from investigators “is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry, violates core constitutional principles and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”
The news outlet points out that it’s obvious that Jordan is in a unique position to help shed light on the events surrounding the violence on January 6.
The New York Times also reported that Jordan attended crisis meetings at Trump campaign headquarters as early as Nov. 9, just two days after Joe Biden became president-elect, and participated in a meeting at the White House two weeks before the Jan. 6 attack, at which he plotted with Trump on how best to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Soon after, on Jan. 5, the Ohio Republican forwarded a message to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, describing a scheme in which then-Vice President Mike Pence could help reject election results Republicans didn’t like.
Jordan also peddled baseless anti-election conspiracy theories, saying, reality be damned, “I don’t know how you can ever convince me that President Trump didn’t actually win this thing.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy nevertheless tried to appoint Jordan to the committee that now wants to chat with him. (Michael Gerson accurately described Jordan’s selection as “a malicious choice.”)
RELATED: Jim Jordan Almost Has Seizure Trying To Deflect Question About His Call With Trump On Jan 6.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican co-chair of the bipartisan panel, warned months ago that Jordan may very well be called to testify before the committee, largely because he was “involved in a number of meetings in the lead-up to what happened on Jan. 6, involved in planning for Jan. 6, certainly for the objections that day.”
