Obstruction and Destruction
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Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga,, the chairman of the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, told Just the News he is frustrated that videotapes of interviews, transcripts and other evidence that Congress gathered under the prior Jan. 6 inquiry run by Democrats was deleted, destroyed, moved to other federal agencies or locked behind passwords that have not been recovered, and he believes some form of accountability is warranted.
“As far as holding people accountable, yes, they should be,” Loudermilk said during an interview with Just the News, No Noise television show. “But I think that's going to be a little ways down the road, because there is so much more information that we need to get. And we need to build not only this, to get the truth out to the American people, but see just how big this case potentially is for obstructing.”
Loudermilk also took a shot at Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former chairman of the Jan 6 Select Committee, saying he believes Thompson left control of decisions of the committee to his former Republican vice chairwoman, ex-Rep. Liz Cheney.
“There's still documents that we need to get hold off. We still don't have passwords for the encrypted documents,” Loudermilk said. “It's amazing that you know, when I asked the former Chairman Bennie Thompson, ‘all I want you to do is give me the passwords.’ He said, ‘I don't even know what you're talking about.’
“Well, I think it's coming down to he probably didn't, because now new information we're getting is that Liz Cheney ran that committee,” Loudermlk added.
A spokesman for Thompson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lawmakers and congressional staff enjoy significant immunity from punishment, at least in criminal court, for their official actions in Congress under the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Loudermilk said he will decide on a possible course for seeking accountability after his subcommittee resolves access to the evidence that is still missing and determines responsibility. He said options range from a criminal referral to DOJ for obstruction to censure by Congress or a referral to the House Ethics Committee for investigation.
“Those are options. We also have to look at what other options are there. There’s also censure-ship, ethics, obviously, but also consider there are members of that Select Committee who are no longer members of Congress. So they may fall under a different scenario,” he said.
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What ever happened to the showing/release of all videos from that timeframe?
