Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is among the stalwart group of MAGA Republicans in Congress who characterize the riots of January 6th as benign and the rioters of January 6th as “hostages” and “political prisoners” who should be pardoned or otherwise freed.
Besides disparaging the U.S. courts that have convicted multiple Jan 6ers (see DOJ data), Greene also denigrates the congressional committee that was organized to investigate the events of that day, calling the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (the January 6th Committee) “illegitimate.”
Greene’s assertion that the committee was illegally constituted serves as a premise to allow those who defied the committee’s subpoenas to go unpunished — a group that includes Trump insiders like Peter Navarro (currently serving a 4-month sentence for contempt of Congress) and Steve Bannon (scheduled to begin serving a similar sentence).
Irrelevant & pointless. McCarthy had a chance to have 5 members on the Committee. But he insisted on putting Jim Jordan & Jim Banks on, who were targets of the investigation. When Pelosi said no to those 2 he pulled all of them. Nehls was included. So they got Cheney & Kinzinger. pic.twitter.com/0ukLzh2oAp
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 18, 2024
Republicans weren’t happy with the makeup of the committee, which featured never-Trump Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — both of whom MAGA ultimately ousted from the government for their work on the committee.
Why weren’t MAGA-friendly Republicans included on the committee, which could potentially have given it more legitimacy in the eyes of the far Right? That’s the issue the Congresswoman raises, claiming the exclusion of certain Republican members during its formation invalidates the committee.
Yet Greene’s assertion that the Jan 6th committee was improperly constituted hits a roadblock with the reminder of the machinations of then House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who “insisted on putting Jim Jordan & Jim Banks on, who were targets of the investigation” — as former Republican prosecutor Ron Filipkowski emphasizes in the refutation above.
Banks and Jordan are Republican Congressmen from Indiana and Ohio, respectively. It has long been common practice to exclude from investigative committees members who are the subjects of the investigation, Filipkowski implies, just as it has long been common practice to deny the fox the job of minding the henhouse.