I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God (Oath taken by all Members of Congress).
Subpoena Power
It was October of 2015, the year before the Presidential election that “changed the world”. The Republicans were in the majority of the House of Representatives. That gave them control of all the House Committees and the topics they investigated. And again and again, for over three years, five different committees investigated the tragic loss of four American lives in Benghazi, Libya. One of those lives was the US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.
What happened at Benghazi, even after five different committees reported, is still clouded. What was thought to be a spontaneous riot turned out to be an organized and planned assault on the two US diplomatic compounds there. The Committees wanted to know what happened, why the United States Ambassador wasn’t better protected, and why the response to the attack seemed so slow.
Hillary
But the Benghazi investigations also served a very different purpose. Republicans used it as a way to attack the probable Democratic Presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity said at the time:
“And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable (sic). But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.”
And how did Secretary Clinton respond to these long term, multiple attacks on her actions, character, and honesty? On October 19th, 2015, she appeared before the Select Committee on Benghazi, chaired by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy. And she answered their questions, from Gowdy, Jim Jordan, Mike Pompeo and others, for eleven hours straight. After her testimony, there was little else to do. The Committee put out a long report, full of conjecture about what Clinton might have done, but short on facts. Three years of five committees investigations and $7 million, and all they really found was that Hillary Clinton could outlast them all on the witness stand.
But they got what they wanted. By sheer repetition, they were able to damage her “trustabliity”.
Insurrection
Today’s Democratic House of Representatives has a select committee investigating the events of January 6th, 2021. It is the day of the Insurrection, but as the Committee is discovering, much like Benghazi what looked like a spontaneous mob action turns out to be highly organized. The “tentacles” of organization weren’t only in the Trump Campaign and the fringe organizations like the Oath Takers and the Proud Boys. We now know that multiple Congressmen and Senators; the Pentagon the Justice Department, and the White House Staff were all part of the process leading to that near-disaster. And it seems to lead all the way to the Oval Office.
Hundreds of Americans are currently on trial for their actions at the Capitol on January 6th. But the legal process hasn’t reached beyond the trenches; the rioters on the steps or in the halls of the seat of our Democracy. And, as far as the public knows, the Justice Department hasn’t reached beyond the actors to those that “pulled the strings” on the Insurrection. In the “normal” world of Attorney General Merrick Garland, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Remember we didn’t know anything about the ill-fated “Russia Investigation”, of the Trump Campaign, Crossfire Hurricane, for ten months before Congress exposed it.
Tentacles
So the January 6th Committee is the only apparent investigation of the “tentacles” of the Insurrection. They’ve called high profile witnesses to testify about their roles. Many, perhaps more than three hundred, have given depositions and “staff” testimony. A few, including former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark and Trump advisor Roger Stone, are using the Fifth Amendment Constitutional protection against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions.
And a few are denying the “legitimacy” of the Committee, or claiming an extra-legal right of former-Presidential privilege to avoid answering questions. Currently Steve Bannon is facing criminal contempt charges from the Justice Department, and Congress has recommended that Mark Meadows do the same.
Scott Perry
Congressman Scott Perry is a Republican from Pennsylvania, and a former Brigadier General in the Pennsylvania National Guard. He’s been in the Congress since 2012, and is the current Chairman of the House “Freedom Caucus”, the forty-four member right-wing group of Congressmen that includes Jim Jordan, Louie Gohmert, Matt Goetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Mark Meadows is a former Chairman of the group.
The House Committee investigation has uncovered many contacts between members of the Freedom Caucus and the organizers of the Insurrection. Scott Perry pressed the Trump Administration to make Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark the interim head of the Justice Department. Clark, and Perry, both were prime drivers of the “Stop the Steal” false narrative that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump.
The Committee has asked Congressman Perry to answer questions about his actions. He could, if he’s afraid he could face criminal prosecution, shelter behind the Fifth Amendment. Or, he could claim a “Congressional privilege” of free speech and debate. But instead of making those claims, or following the example of Hillary Clinton and confronting his accusers, Congressman Perry is pretending that the Committee is “illegitimate”.
Answer the Question
It’s not. The House can constitute whatever Committees that the majority want. The Republicans actually had the opportunity to agree to a wholly bi-partisan committee, but chose not to. Instead, the Democrats moved on their own, and then included two Republican members who asked to join, Congresswoman Cheney and Congressman Kinzinger.
All of this raises the question: did the leaders of the “Stop the Steal” movement think they were acting to correct an injustice, or did they know that they were lying to the American people. If they think they were in “the right”, what is preventing them from testifying and defending their position. Don’t Congressmen and other public officials have a legal obligation to “defend the Constitution”? Isn’t that what they thought they were doing?
Or they can act like folks that know they did something wrong. They can dodge and obfuscate, make up “rights” that don’t exist; all to avoid taking responsibility for the stand they took. Hillary Clinton stood up to her accusers, and for eleven hours gave as good as she got. These men are hiding behind legal fiction.
America will decide who is right.
