House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is trying to obstruct investigations of the January 6th Committee.
Last week, McCarthy’s attorney demanded to review questions and documents the House Committee has on him before he would consider whether he would appear or not. He also questioned the legitimacy of the subpoena he received.
McCarthy Unwilling to Cooperate
Early in January, Kevin McCarthy issued a statement detailing why he was not going to cooperate with the committee.
“As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward,” the California Republican said in a statement.
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This ignited sharp criticisms from some of McCarthy’s own colleagues in the house and some members investigating the insurrection.
Vice Chairwoman of the House Select Committee, Liz Cheney, accused McCarthy of trying to cover up what happened on January 6, adding the committee may subpoena him if they must.
“We’re going to evaluate our options, but we will get to the truth,” Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, told CNN, when pressed on the committee’s options for dealing with the House minority leader’s refusal to cooperate.
Conservative Columnist Accuses McCarthy Cover-up
Some conservatives believe the House Minority Leader is being an “active participant” in Donald Trump’s cover up of the January 6 attacks on the Capitol.
A former adviser to Texas Senator,Ted Cruz and conservative columnist, Amanda Carpenter, wrote in an op-ed that Kevin McCarthy is indeed working behind the scenes to obstruct the work of the committee.
“Berke closed his letter with a request: that the committee give McCarthy a list of all topics and subjects it would like to discuss, as well as copies of ‘all documents’ the committee would like to ask about, along with the ‘constitutional and legal rationale’ for each of those requests,” she writes. “Which is lots of lawyer-speak for people who bill by fractions of the hour. What this request really meant was that McCarthy has absolutely no intention of acting as a cooperative witness. He wants information from the committee; he doesn’t want to give them any.”
Carpenter maintains that “McCarthy is one of the few people working outside the White House who was in contact with Donald Trump as the riot progressed and could shed valuable light on his state of mind and intentions, and yet is refusing to do so.”
The House Minority Leader’s refusal to comply with the subpoena is worrying because he is likely to be joined by other Republican colleagues who may have useful information to share with the committee in helping it to unravel the facts surrounding the Capitol attack.