The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot has called Rep. Jim Jordan’s bluff, asking the Ohio Republican to sit for an interview with lawmakers probing both the origins of the attack and the associated effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jordan, a Trump loyalist, said in November that he had “nothing to hide” regarding the events leading up to January 6th.
On Wednesday he received a letter from the select committee’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), asking for voluntary testimony and other information.
“We understand that you had at least one and possibly multiple communications with President Trump on January 6th. We would like to discuss each such communication with you in detail,” the letter states.
The committee also wants to ask to Jordan about any strategy sessions he participated in about invalidating Joe Biden’s 2020 win. In addition, investigators are interested in learning about “any discussions involving the possibility of presidential pardons for individuals involved in any aspect of January 6th or the planning for January 6th.”
“The Select Committee has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members,” the letter says, before adding “the American people deserve a full and accurate accounting of what happened on January 6th.”
“We just got the letter today,” Jordan said on Fox News Wednesday night. “We’re going to review the letter.”
Jordan has previously called the congressional committee probing January 6th “a sham.”
The New York Times provides important context:
Mr. Jordan, a Republican, was deeply involved in Mr. Trump’s effort to fight the election results. He participated in planning meetings with senior White House officials, including a gathering in November 2020 at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and a meeting at the White House last December, where Republican lawmakers discussed plans with the president’s team to use the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 to challenge the election outcome.
On Jan. 5, Mr. Jordan forwarded to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, a text message he had received from a lawyer and former Pentagon inspector general outlining a legal strategy to overturn the election.
“On Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence,” the text read.
Jordan has a tortured history with the House select committee. CNN explains:
Jordan was originally selected by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to be one of five GOP members serving on the committee back in July, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected McCarthy’s selection of Jordan, along with GOP Rep. Jim Banks, because she said their appointments could impact the “integrity of the investigation.”
Pelosi’s decision led McCarthy to pull all five of his members, which further soured the willingness between the two parties to work together, and led Pelosi to select which Republicans should serve on the panel.
“During a House Rules Committee hearing in October,” The Washington Post reports, “Jordan struggled to answer questions about his communications with Trump and told the panel that he doesn’t recall the number of times he spoke with Trump that day. He also said he had never spoken with Trump about a coordinated effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.”
Jordan is the second GOP lawmaker to receive a request for testimony from the committee. Earlier this week, Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania, rejected the committee’s overtures.
The committee has interviewed over 300 people so far. A committee spokesperson said they could begin “using other tools” to get information from obstinate lawmakers.