Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., center, speaks as the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Washington. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., left, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listen. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The Florida Congressman says it remains unclear which records were kept or destroyed by the January 6th Committee which was chaired by Mississippi’s 2nd District Congressman.
On Wednesday, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican, introduced a resolution to censure Mississippi’s 2nd District Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat.
The censure resolution against Thompson is for violating longstanding rules of the U.S. House of Representatives in his capacity as the former Chairman of the January 6th Select Committee as appointed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In a release announcing the censure resolution, Congressman Gaetz states that investigations by the House Judiciary Committee have confirmed that Congressman Thompson knowingly violated House rules by not turning over all the January 6th Select Committee’s records to the Clerk of the House at the end of the 117th Congress in December 2022.
Gaetz says Thompson sent a letter to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security where he implied critical congressional records related to the work of the January 6th Committee would be improperly stored at the White House. The Florida Congressman says it remains unclear which records were kept or destroyed by the committee.
“Lawmakers investigating the weaponization of the federal government are unable to determine which records of the January 6th Select Committee were kept or destroyed before Republicans took control of the House,” Congressman Gaetz said in a statement. “At a minimum, Rep. Thompson should be censured by the House for this violation and removed the Committee on Homeland Security.”
Thompson previously chaired the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security at the same time he was also chairing the January 6th Committee when Democrats had the majority in the chamber. The Mississippi Congressman remains a member of the Homeland Security Committee.
Georgia Congressman Barry Loudermilk, a Republican, is now leading an investigation into the work of the January 6th Committee in the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
The censure resolution as offered by Gaetz can be found here.
Frank Corder
