RUTHFULLY YOURS

U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) promises the January 6 Select committee hearings “will tell a story that will blow the roof of the House.” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) insists the committee’s “job is to tell the truth.” Turncoat Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) claims her fellow committee members will be “focused on facts, not rhetoric, and we will present those facts without exaggeration, no matter what criticism we face.”

After a year of unrestrained investigation led by seasoned federal prosecutors who interrogated at least 1,000 witnesses and collected hundreds of thousands of documents including records once considered privileged material, the committee will present its findings to the American people beginning with a much-hyped primetime hearing Thursday night. Their bottom-line task is to convince the public that Trump led a “coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” according to a committee tweet last week.

To spark interest in the hearing, the committee has hired, at taxpayer expense, a veteran television producer to create a “blockbuster investigative special” featuring clips of the protest and witness interviews.

Democrats hope “chilling” revelations about the four-hour disturbance at the Capitol more than 17 months ago will prevent an electoral bloodbath for the party this November. Collaboration between Congress and Joe Biden’s Justice Department has resulted in contempt charges against Trump confidants Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon; meanwhile, Biden’s handpicked U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has criminally indicted more than 800 Americans for protesting Biden’s election on January 6.

On the same day last week, FBI agents arrested Navarro in public at a D.C. airport and arrested two men from Florida on charges of civil disorder and three misdemeanors related to the Capitol protest.

Contrary to what Cheney and her Trump-hating inquisitors say, the January 6 committee is far from a truth-finding mission. In fact, what the committee fails to address will speak more to its true motivations—to drive a stake in the heart of a political movement that refuses to die and, in some regards, is stronger than ever—not prevent another “insurrection” in the future, which is how the committee was sold to the country.

While committee members attempt to criminalize complaints of a “stolen” presidential election—an accusation the very same people once leveled regarding Donald Trump’s win in 2016—evidence key to providing a full, unvarnished account of what happened on January 6 is unlikely to be made available to the public. At the same time, already established aspects of that day will be ignored and falsehoods promoted as reality.

For example, will the committee release 14,000 hours of surveillance video to show what happened inside and outside of the Capitol building on January 6? Biden’s Justice Department quickly designated the footage as “highly sensitive government material” that remains under strict protective orders in court proceedings.

Allowing the public to view most of the video is the best way to uncover the “truth” about what happened that day. Why continue to conceal it? If January 6 is comparable to 9/11 and other deadly terror attacks, as Biden and his appartchiks insist, Cheney and her colleagues should authorize the immediate and unedited release of all publicly-funded security video.

And what about the security video from January 5? Will the committee explain why Capitol police erased almost all the surveillance video from the day before the protest? Democratic lawmakers have accused Republicans of conducting “reconnaissance tours” in anticipation of the so-called insurrection, but all security video that could have proven that claim oddly has been purged from Capitol police video files. Tampering with evidence surrounding the crime of the century? Certainly this should shock the “rule of law” consciences of Cheney and company.

Where are the internal investigative reports on police misconduct on January 6? Will the committee make public the inquiry into the police killing of Ashli Babbitt? What about the three other fatalities that day? Democrats continually describe January 6 as a “deadly” insurrection but the only people who died were Trump supporters. Will Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill), who cried at testimony by police officers during last July’s hearing, shed similar tears for four dead Americans whose deaths were wholly or partially a result of excessive force used on January 6?

The public has been told the death toll could’ve been much higher that day. Just imagine the bloodshed if two pipe bombs had exploded a few blocks from the Capitol building. To that end, will the committee finally identify the alleged pipe bomber responsible for planting explosives outside the headquarters of both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on the evening of January 5?

Reports of the bombs initiated panic on January 6 and prompted the evacuation of adjacent House buildings; lawmakers and commentators immediately speculated the perpetrator was a Trump supporter. The FBI released grainy video of the suspect shortly after the Capitol protest and offered a hefty reward for his capture.

But despite the FBI’s use of extensive tools, including geofence warrants, to track down Capitol protesters, the department still hasn’t been able to identify the pipe bomber. Further, the department appears to have lost interest in the crime—an inexplicable move since the Justice Department finally admitted in court filings last year that Senator Kamala Harris was inside the DNC building, not inside the Capitol building as the government claimed in court documents for over a year, when Capitol police located the explosive. Surely the committee has a heightened interest in finding the man who could have killed a sitting U.S. Senator and incoming vice president just hours before Congress certified her election, right? Where is the final FBI report on the incident?

Speaking of the FBI, will the committee disclose how many undercover agents and informants were in any way involved with January 6? Reporting by the New York Times last year confirmed at least two informants infiltrated the Proud Boys months before and were among the first to “breach” the perimeter of the grounds.

Court filings reveal that undercover federal agents were stationed around the building before the chaos unfolded; hundreds of elite FBI agents were summoned to Quantico the weekend before January 6 and deployed to downtown D.C. that morning. For what?

A top FBI official refused to say whether FBI agents or informants provoked or engaged in violent behavior that day. As the recent trial of Michael Sussmann again showed, a seamless relationship exists between Democratic Party interests and the nation’s top law enforcement agency—so much so that the FBI has a workplace at Perkins Coie, the Democrats’ powerhouse law firm.

And will the committee finally give the long-awaited answer to the question, “Who is Ray Epps?” Speculation that Epps, seen on video numerous times directing people to go inside the building on January 6, was a federal agent because he was removed from the FBI’s most wanted list and faced no charges more than a year later, strangely prompted the committee to rush to Epps’ defense. Kinzinger stated on Twitter that committee investigators had interviewed Epps and a transcript would be released. That was five months ago.

It’s highly unlikely, of course, that the committee will address any of those matters during this week’s hearing or in subsequent performances. Meanwhile, congenital liars such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will perpetuate long-debunked narratives including the number of police officers who died as a result of January 6 (the answer is none) or that Trump loyalists brought firearms into the building (they didn’t).

A sham congressional committee working with a corrupt Justice Department boosted by a dishonest national media can only be expected to create political propaganda, not expose the truth; no matter how hard Liz Cheney pretends her vengeance mission is legitimate, most of the American public isn’t buying what she’s selling.