January 6 committee intends to share 20 transcripts with the Justice Department
By Annie Grayer, CNN
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol intends to share 20 transcripts with the Justice Department, a select committee spokesperson told CNN.
“The select committee intends to share 20 transcripts. We have no plans to share additional transcripts at this time,” the spokesperson said.
The official sharing of transcripts between the committee and the Justice Department comes as the department’s criminal investigation into January 6 is heating up.
Although it is not immediately clear which transcripts the committee would be handing over to the Justice Department, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the panel, previously said the department was interested in individuals connected to the plan to put forward “fake electors” for former President Donald Trump.
“The only issue we’ve engaged them on is the list of fraudulent electors,” Thompson told reporters earlier this month.
Politico was first to report on the transcript sharing.
Thompson told CNN earlier Thursday that the panel has formalized a process for sharing information with the Justice Department, but the department had not given the committee a list of names it wanted specific transcripts for at that point.
“We just got the process ostensibly in writing and agreed on,” he said.
Thompson said when the Justice Department makes its request, it will not be in camera, which would have required DOJ officials to go to the committee offices to review the transcripts without keeping their own copy. He said that decision was made to “avoid additional work.”
No one that the committee has spoken with, the chair said, would be “off limits” for the Justice Department, “but it’s up to them to tell us what they want.”
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