House Democrats with GOP Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., unveiled the third round of subpoenas Thursday in their witch hunt over the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The three new subpoenas target Stop the Steal LLC., along with Ali Alexander and Nathan Martin, who were both organizers of the protest.
“The rally on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy,” wrote Committee Chair Bennie Thompson of Mississippi on the heel of the new trove of subpoenas, in a statement reported by Politico. “The Select Committee needs to understand all the details about the events that came before the attack, including who was involved in planning and funding them. We expect these witnesses to cooperate fully with our probe.”
Since its inception, however, the Select Committee on Jan. 6 has served as a show trial for Democrats in partnership with a pair of leading NeverTrump Republicans to seek retribution against political dissidents. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped Kinzinger and Cheney to serve on the probe after the Democrat barred Republicans Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, from the panel.
The committee’s first hearing in July featured a slate of Capitol police officers airing a public vendetta against the former president while lawmakers manufactured tears. One officer, Harry Dunn, had also previously defended the riots that engulfed the nation’s capital last year. The devastation from the two weeks of rioting in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s death alone cost an estimated 66 times more than the damage at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Eleven other organizers of the peaceful demonstration preceding the Capitol riot were also subpoenaed last week in the panel’s second round of subpoenas issued. Even leftists at the Brennan Center have criticized the deliberate targeting of private citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble.
“At minimum, there needs to be some distinction between people who actually participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol and those who were in D.C. lawfully exercising their right to protest,” said Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program. Goitein said she feared this is setting a “dangerous precedent.”
Lawmakers on the committee have yet to issue subpoenas for officials at the FBI, which The New York Times admitted last week planted informants in the crowd that overtook the Capitol. The probe’s first round of subpoenas targeted four former Trump aides.
