Justice Department has asked Jan 6 committee for witness transcripts, report says

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Federal prosecutors have asked the House of Representatives committee investigating the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol to provide transcripts of witness interviews and depositions taken by committee members and staff, according to a New York Times report.

A “person with knowledge of the matter” told the Times committee chairman Bennie Thompson has not reached any agreement with Attorney General Merrick Garland or other Justice Department officials regarding what, if any, documents will be provided.

But the department has been in communication with the panel since 20 April, when Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite and District of Columbia US Attorney Matthew Graves wrote to the committee’s chief investigator, Tim Heaphy, to inform him that some interviews conducted by the panel may have yielded “information relevant to a criminal investigation we are conducting,” though they did not detail which interviews they wanted access to.

The communications between the department and the select committee are an indication that the department is looking more closely at efforts by former president Donald Trump and his allies to install Mr Trump in the White House for a second term against the wishes of American voters.

Those efforts culminated in the 6 January riot, the worst such attack on the Capitol since Major General Robert Ross ordered British troops to set it ablaze during the War of 1812.

Because the select committee — which has interviewed over 1,000 witnesses — has spoken to many of the planners involved in Mr Trump’s efforts and involved in planning the rally which proceeded the riot, obtaining transcripts of the depositions and interviews would allow prosecutors to skip conducting interviews of their own and present the documents as evidence to a grand jury.