House Democrats are pushing to have the former Jan. 6 Committee chairman who sought to strip former President Donald Trump of his security detail earlier this year serve on a bipartisan commission investigating the recent assassination attempt.
On Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that former Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is one top candidate Democrats are considering for an appointment to the 11-person panel established by House leadership.
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can choose five Democrats to serve along with six Republicans,” Punchbowl reported. “Democrats are still sorting through potential candidates. But one name we’ve heard is Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). Thompson is the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security panel and chaired the Jan. 6 Committee.”
In the spring, however, Thompson introduced legislation to leave Trump vulnerable to assassination with the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act (HR 8081). The bill, proposed in April, would have terminated Secret Service protection for otherwise qualified candidates who are convicted of a felony. Trump was convicted by a New York jury in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records when the Manhattan real estate mogul labeled payments to a lawyer as legal expenses.
The Mississippi lawmaker wrote in a post on X he was “glad the former President is safe” following a would-be assassin’s bullet tearing through Trump’s ear at a Pennsylvania rally. Trump miraculously survived the assassination attempt with a last-second tilt of the head to read a chart on immigration.
Punchbowl News not only omitted Thompson’s efforts to remove Trump’s security detail, but the outlet also said nothing of the former Jan. 6 Committee chairman’s misconduct on the partisan panel that was weaponized to throw political opponents in jail without proper oversight.
In March, House lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 Committee’s conduct reported that Thompson’s probe deleted troves of records from the two-year inquisition to cover up additional abuses by the committee. The Federalist had just revealed the committee led by Thompson and disgraced Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney concealed testimony from former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato, who told investigators Trump pled for D.C. leadership to accept 10,000 National Guard reinforcements for local police ahead of Jan. 6, 2021.
The Jan. 6 Committee ultimately imprisoned two former Trump officials who refused to comply with subpoenas issued by lawmakers on the panel, which was improperly established in the lower chamber. Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro completed a four-month prison sentence and flew straight to Milwaukee, where he gave a defiant speech at the Republican National Convention.
Steve Bannon, who previously served as an adviser in the Trump White House and runs the “War Room” podcast, was similarly sentenced to four months behind bars earlier this month.
The Secret Service director in charge of the agency when Trump was shot resigned Tuesday after a bipartisan grilling before the House Oversight Committee.
