Chairman of congressional committee investigating 6 January riot vows ‘nothing is off limits’

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The chairman of the select congressional committee investigating the 6 January riot, Bennie Thompson, has vowed that “nothing is off limits” with his investigation into that day, and the actions of former US president Donald Trump.

Democrats including Mr Thompson had long called for the inquiry despite facing Republican resistance. Many of whom had furthered Mr Trump’s baseless lies about a rigged election.

Five people were killed as a result of the violent clashes, including a Capitol police officer, and hundreds more were injured. So far, around 500 people face charges for breaching the building that day, in what was an apparent attempt at blocking the certification of Mr Trump’s defeat by Congress.

Mr Thompson told The Guardian in an interview on Wednesday that “nothing is off limits”, with members of Congress and Trump administration officials possibly facing questioning when the committee gets underway next week.

That including Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, who allegedly called Mr Trump with concerns that rioters had breached Congress on 6 January – only for the former president to complain that the Republican had not overturned the 2020 election result.

“There will not be a reluctance on the part of the committee to pursue it,” said Mr Thompson of that call. “The committee will want to know if there is a record of what was said.”

He added that anyone who was in contact with Mr Trump that day could be called before the committee, which includes both Democrats and Republicans.

US Rep Jim Jordan, who was announced as one of the Republican-appointed members of the committee this week, told The Independent on Tuesday that he would try to blame Democrats for the 6 January riot.

“I think it’s important to point out that Democrats created this environment sort of normalising rioting, normalising looting, normalising anarchy in the summer of 2020 and I think that’s an important piece of information to look into,” the congressman said.

Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said last month that the committee will look at “the facts and the causes of the attack” and report on recommendations to prevent any future riot. She added that it was "complementary, not instead of" the bipartisan commission that was blocked by Senate Republicans in May.

“The issues of January 6 are one of the most salient challenges we have as a nation,” Mr Thompson added, “to make sure that this democracy does not fall prey to people who don’t really identify with democracy”.