Article by Michael Dorstewitz in NewsMax
Still Think the Jan. 6 Committee is Above Politics?
Any question that the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack amounts to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s own personal kangaroo court should have disappeared this week.
During a Wednesday night appearance on MSNBC, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told host Rachel Maddow that witnesses can prove their guilt by exercising their Fifth Amendment constitutional right.
At issue was a statement made by former Trump Justice Department
official Jeffery Clark, indicating that if he appears before the
committee under subpoena, he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right to
remain silent.
Maddow asked Thompson what the implications would be in the event Clark were to follow through with this.
"The implications is we will give Mr. Clark his right to assert his
Fifth Amendment before the committee if he chooses. We’ve been
negotiating with Mr. Clark since October. We’re doing everything we can
to show we're not partisan," Thompson told Maddow.
Then he showed Maddow and her viewers exactly how partisan he and the other committee members actually are.
"But you know, if you say you haven't done anything wrong, but on
the other hand, you want to assert the Fifth Amendment in terms of
self-prosecution, it says that you have something to hide. So we're
going to give him an opportunity to do it," he continued.
And at that point it got really insane.
“He can do it and it will be under oath and he is still subject to
certain penalties should he decide to not tell us anything,” Thompson
added.
"If he is saying, 'I’ll come but I’ll plead the Fifth,’ in some
instances that says you are part and parcel guilty to what occurred," he
said.
That very issue came up during last month’s Kenosha, Wisconsin
murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, when Judge Bruce Schroeder admonished
the prosecutor for questioning Rittenhouse on why he chose to remain
silent about the incident until the time of trial. The judge was
incensed.
"The problem is this is a grave constitutional violation for you to talk about the defendant’s silence," Schroder said. "You're right on the borderline, and you may be over it. But it better stop."
It’s basic black-letter constitutional law. You cannot hold a
person’s right to exercise his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent
against him.
But this wasn’t the first hint that the committee was
ultra-partisan. It became evident back in July that the January 6
Committee would be heavily weighted against the GOP in general, and
Trump supporters in particular.
Each party’s leaders appoint members of their own caucus to the
various congressional committees. Those selections are based on each
member’s tenure, expertise, and desire to serve on particular
committees.
But Pelosi summarily rejected Minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s
appointment of Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of
Ohio — both vocal Trump supporters.
"With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an
insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and
actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of
Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee," Pelosi said in a statement, before acknowledging that her action was highly unusual.
"The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision," the House Speaker added.
McCarthy shot back,
"Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican
nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will
instead pursue our own investigation of the facts."
After that, Pelosi herself appointed two nominal Republicans to the
committee: Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
Cheney claimed
that it was McCarthy’s fault that the committee included no Republicans
that he had appointed. Considering the politics of Cheney an Kinzinger,
the committee arguably has no Republicans at all.
Cheney added that in recognition of McCarthy’s decision, "Chairman
Thompson decided that this will be a nonpartisan investigation, and that
is how we are proceeding."
Nope. It’s just the opposite. It’s hyper-partisan. And any
"findings" or "conclusions" the committee makes should be considered
works of fiction.
The committee has reached the point of assuming guilt until proven innocent.
And as for MSNBC inviting Thompson to spew this nonsense, author and political commentator Dave Rubin observed that the network has become "a 24 mental institution."
