Several individuals who served on, or testified before, the Democrat-dominated House select committee on Jan. 6 are now attempting to thwart former President Donald Trump’s chances of being elected to a second term by portraying him as a direct threat to their freedom.
The panel, which sought to characterize the 2021 protest on Capitol Hill as an “insurrection” the then-president was responsible for inciting, has since been accused of misrepresenting or withholding evidence in pursuit of advancing an anti-Trump narrative.
BREAKING: One of the star witnesses for the Jan. 6 Committee, Cassidy Hutchinson, changed 47 answers after she testified to the panel four times, a newly revealed document shows. She certainly LIED about me https://t.co/KJTtDtzbdQ
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 16, 2024
Trump has spoken out forcefully against the effort, writing on social media last month that former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) — one of just two Republicans on the committee — “should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!”
Such remarks from the former president have been interpreted by some members as a threat, and several recently expressed concerns about their safety if he is elected in November.
“My wife and I have had conversations about what life would look like if the worst happened,” lamented Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), adding: “You can’t avoid the conversations about ‘what if?’ And I have to think about my own personal safety.”
Reps. Pete Aguilar and Zoe Lofgren, both California Democrats, asserted that they were also worried about being locked up if Trump wins a second term.
“My family has told me that they’re going to come to D.C. either way — and they’ll visit me, no matter where I am,” Aguilar said in reference to the short distance from Capitol hill to the district’s jail.
In addition to claiming that she had been harassed by Trump supporters for her role in the Jan. 6 probe, Lofgren said: “One of the things I observed during our Jan. 6 committee work was that when Trump says something, he intends to do it. I take that lesson to heart. When he says various things, I think that’s what he means he’ll do.”
Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, a key witness for the committee, speculated that Trump would “weaponize the Department of Justice” and “use it to go after people” like him if elected to serve another term.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee got the last word in the CBS News article chronicling the complaints of Jan. 6 committee insiders, however.
“Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, and the Corrupt Democrats on the sham January 6th Committee have lied to the American public for years, denied key witnesses from testifying to the truth, and covered up evidence that proved President Trump, nor any of his supporters, ever engaged in an alleged ‘insurrection,’” a Trump spokesperson declared.
“Their entire narrative is a lie and Americans know that Joe Biden is the true threat to democracy.”
