For weeks, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan has claimed that he has “nothing to hide” about his knowledge of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. However, he now appears to have a lot to hide from the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection that day.
Citing a report by Punchbowl, Raw Story reported that Jordan was cooperating with the probe, but changed his mind when Trump asked him to stop talking to the investigators.
Now, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the committee, is using Jordan’s own words against him.
During an interview on MSNBC Tuesday, Raskin Jordan said Jordan should refer back to his own words during one of the many Benghazi hearings his party held last decade.
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“To answer Jim Jordan, I would quote Jim Jordan from the views that he expressed in the final Benghazi report, where he said that all of the truth must come out,” Raskin told MSNBC host John Heilemann. “Everybody needs to testify, and nobody’s got the right to hide anything from Congress. So, I think he had it right then. Jim Jordan, more than anybody else, knows what dogged, aggressive investigation is about, even when he’s on a wild goose chase, he demands all the information he wants, and we’re not on that. We are on the central investigative mission certainly of this decade, if not this century, to get to the bottom of this terrible political crime that was incited and to a substantial extent organized by Donald Trump.”
The Maryland Democrat said that the committee hasn’t discussed what the next steps are for Jordan, whether he’ll be referred to the Justice Department or be subpoenaed by the committee to turn over information.
“Article I of the Constitution gives each House of Congress the right to set the rules of its own proceedings,” Raskin explained. “We are also — have disciplinary power over members, including the power of censure, admonishment, all the way to expulsion from the body and the speech and debate clause says members of Congress should not be questioned for their legislative work and judgments outside of congress, clearly implying they can be questioned inside of Congress. And, of course, that’s a habitual occurrence with the Ethics Committee where we call people all the time so there’s nothing remotely extraordinary about the idea that we can call and demand the presence of members.”
He went on to say that the implication that the investigation isn’t legitimate “was soundly, thoroughly repudiated by the D.C. Circuit.” If Congress doesn’t have the power to research the attack on Congress “then there are no legitimate legislative purposes. So, we’ve got to put that lie to bed immediately.”
Watch the interview below:
