The January 6th committee reportedly cost the American taxpayers $3.3 million in 2022, plus an undisclosed added sum from June to December 2021. We now learn that the narrative” (narratives used to be fairytales) they produced is a lie, fundamentally untrue.
Unlike in a court of law, where prosecutors can be sanctioned, disbarred, evidence and perhaps the entire case was thrown out for failure to reveal exculpatory evidence – evidence of innocence – the politically motivated (some might say obsessed) January 6th committee suppressed key evidence of innocence – both Donald Trump’s and that of those detained, pressed to confess, prosecuted.
The latest report by Chairman Laudermilk’s “investigation into the investigation,” a methodical peeling back of what was known then, revealed and suppressed, is breathtaking.
It shows that the committee’s vice-chairmen, then-congressmen Liz Cheney and Ben Thompson, actively intimidated witnesses, seemed to have wanted to browbeat confessions, insisted on intentions they did not have, and then went one step further… fabricated and suppressed evidence.
Learning Donald Trump authorized the use of the National Guard to protect the Capitol, empowering then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and DC Mayor Bowser to do so, the committee consciously suppressed that evidence created the damning counter-story that he had not done so.
They took facts plainly vindicating others, showing Republican members of Congress never did any “surveillance” for anyone, and simply pretended it was not so, argued the opposite. They ignored visual and audio tapes, dozens of them, showing much of what the committee alleged was untrue.
They suppressed evidence of key witnesses who vindicated the president’s actions, before and during the protest by 120,000 of COVID-related irregularities, several hundred unlawfully entering the US Capitol. They suppressed evidence of complicity by those in authority, waving people in.
They suppressed evidence of well-known reporters climbing through broken windows, as if alerted to expect this, moving through the Capitol with non-violent protestors, unimpeded by uniformed and undercover law enforcement, seemingly encouraged – and not one prosecuted.
They suppressed evidence, videos hard to contest, which appear to show a bomb-sniffing dog finding nothing near the DNC, no “pipe bomb,” then a camera turning away then back to what it had just photographed, only now suddenly where there had been none, a pipe bomb. Odd.
They discovered hundreds of files, hidden by the leadership of the January 6th committee, never revealed to the public, and then when Republicans learned of them, Democrats refused to give investigating Republicans the encryption keys to the files. On what planet …?
They discovered, despite the law plainly establishing separation of powers, that Democrats, two days before Republicans took the House gavel, handed interview tapes and transcripts to the White House, out of sight. Since the White House had no right to them, Republicans sought them by subpoena of the White House, Justice, and Homeland Security – got only “redacted” documents.
None of this is legal, none of this is right, none of this is constitutional. All of it betrays public trust, and some are borderline criminal. Non-lawyer Liz Cheney reportedly interrogated, intimidated, and – in the opinion of some – harassed witnesses, fuming when they did not change their story for her.
Again, this is not what we elect officials to do, to abuse power, create false narratives, persecute those they disagree with, and lie to the American people. In the former Soviet Union, modern Iran, China, or Russia – maybe, but not here in the United States of America.
But look at the pattern: False statements and illegal surveillance by Democrats in 2016, false reports to the FISA Court, and three Muller reports ($6.8 million, $10 million, and $8 million) on the false “Russia collusion” story initiated by Hillary Clinton’s campaign – a candidate who herself destroyed 30,000 emails, held classified material she had no right to, and sold her office.
Her campaign strategy – creating a false narrative against her opponent, hiring people to report on it, briefing it to the FBI and DOJ, then leaking it to the press, after also briefing Obama and Biden, all produced what? No accountability, a massive waste of taxpayer money to sully an opponent.
Then look at the lies and taxpayer-funded slop that Mr. Biden has dished, making anyone who voted for Trump an “enemy of the people” (notably quoting Robespierre and Stalin), taking money from China, Ukraine, Romania for personal gain, no prosecution for sharing classified documents illegally for money, pretending his son’s laptop – filled with criminal evidence – was nothing, twisting the typically-unifying State of the Union into another excuse to defame those who disagree with him, and on and on.
This is where we are, what needs to stop: Trillions of dollars are being wasted, misapplied, not used to protect the country but to betray our security at the border, overseas, and at home – while billions have now been spent to defend the indefensible, public corruption at the highest reaches of power.
If the average American – the traditional Democrat, dogged Independent, or conservative Republican – does not stop this, see this as alarming, we are lost. We will lose what we cherish, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, not to mention accountable government. The stakes could not be higher: Accountability or total loss of control. These taxpayer funded lies – must stop.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
