Justice Department Asks Jan. 6 Committee for Transcripts to Help With Criminal Investigation

Patrick Semansky/AP

The Justice Department has asked the Jan. 6 committee to turn over transcripts of interviews it has conducted, signaling that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s probe into the attack on the Capitol could be intensifying.

The New York Times reported the news on Tuesday, noting that the committee was made aware last month that interviews it had conducted “may contain information relevant to a criminal investigation we are conducting,” as Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite and U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves wrote to the committee. Polite and Graves requested the panel “provide to us transcripts of these interviews, and of any additional interviews you conduct in the future.”

More than 1,000 people have appeared before the committee so far, including Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump, as well as several former aides in the Trump administration. But more than a dozen close Trump allies, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have refused to cooperate.

According to the Times, investigators at the Justice Department and at the committee have been conducting their work separately, “except for at times communicating to ensure that a witness is not scheduled to appear before different investigators at the same time.”

The Justice Department has charged more than 700 individuals for their role in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, including several for seditious conspiracy.

The Times reports that the Justice Department is working its way up the chain by looking into actions of the “Stop the Steal” rally planners, but notes that the Jan. 6 committee and the DOJ have yet to reach an agreement regarding the sharing of interview transcripts.

Garland told reporters last month that he will “follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”