Documents, data, and video depositions, including conversations with the Biden White House, were not properly preserved by the House select committee investigating the Capitol disturbance on January 6, 2021.
During an examination of Representative Bennie Thompson’s handling of the J6 probe, Chairman of the House Administration Committee Subcommittee on Oversight Barry Loudermilk indicated that his staff had difficulties gathering the required material. The collected records were jumbled and lacked a table of contents index, often employed in investigations, as observed by Loudermilk. The committee only had access to raw data and little background information from the Blue Team.
Letters show that Loudermilk and Thompson are at odds about whether or not the J6 committee met its responsibilities under House rules. Loudermilk said that Thompson’s committee had to keep and turn over all material related to their probe until the end of the legislative session in December because of legal and House rules requirements. Thompson wrote back, claiming several inaccuracies in Loudermilk’s letter and that his group had submitted the required four gigabytes of material lawfully.
While Loudermilk acknowledges that his committee had received 2.5 gigabytes of material, the failure to save the necessary information was recognized in the first footnote of Thompson’s letter dated July 7. He said the Select Committee didn’t keep documents that weren’t used in official publications or hearings for long and didn’t contribute to the committee’s investigations.
A Republican-led study determined last year that leadership and law enforcement shortcomings inside the U.S. Capitol complex left the complex vulnerable on January 6, 2021. Democrats in the House have spearheaded an inquiry into the events but haven’t looked at the institutional flaws that left the Capitol open to attack.
To return the original papers and records obtained from the Select Committee on January 6, 2021, Loudermilk asked the White House attorney and the DHS counsel to help with the process. Although the Committee on House Administration was legally obligated to receive the original, unredacted letter from the Select Committee to you documenting the loan of materials to the White House, they did not do so.
Loudermilk maintains that it has been tough to track down all the files and figure out what is missing and takes Chairman Thompson’s silence as a reflection of his character, as Thompson has withheld the information he didn’t want Loudermilk’s committee to have.
