Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of the GOP branded the Jan. 6 “sham” commission an obstruction of justice after a new report alleges Democrats illegally deleted files relevant to the investigation before Republicans regained control of it House of Representatives took over.
A new report released Monday claims that just days before the Republican Party took control of the House of Representatives in 2022, more than 100 encrypted files related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation were mysteriously deleted.
The chairman of the investigation, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, said the files have been recovered and he is demanding that Democrats hand over the passwords.
Loudermilk claims a forensic team discovered that 117 files were deleted or encrypted on January 1, 2023, shortly before Republicans took over the investigation previously led by Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney.
“As I have said from day one, Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 sham commission was unlawful and unconstitutional,” Stefanik wrote of X in response to the report.
“It should come as no surprise to anyone that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney’s bogus commission illegally deleted their sham investigation data and obstructed justice. The American people deserve full transparency,” her post continued.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, however, did not let the personal attack go unanswered.
The chairman of the investigation, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, said the files have been recovered and he is demanding that Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney hand over the passwords
She posted on previous statements from continued.
“One day she will have to explain how and why she turned into a total lunatic,” Cheney wrote. “History, and our children, deserve to know.”
Fellow Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene also weighed in on the findings, writing on X that “the members of Congress on the January 6 Select Committee should be investigated.”
“I applaud Congressman Loudermilk’s efforts to find and decrypt these deleted files and support his efforts to bring transparency and accountability,” Stefanik said.
The congressman demands that the Democrats hand over the passwords, as the files have now been restored. The files are believed to contain interviews and statements that could be crucial to the case.
“It is clear that they have gone to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney sought to hinder our Subcommittee by not preserving crucial information and videos as required by House Rules,” Loudermilk said.
The former senator said the investigation into “what really happened that day” is growing thanks to support from new House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is pouring more taxpayer money into the investigation.
“The speaker has deployed all the resources we need to move forward, essentially tripling the size of our staff,” he said.
The riot, which began after former President Donald Trump called on his supporters to try to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, was responsible for the deaths of nine people, left dozens injured and has so far charged 1,200 people .
“We are investigating what really happened on January 6 and how did these people – whoever they were – get into the Capitol? What was the security issue?’” Loudermilk told Fox News.
“Because the American people have a right to know what happened. My main goal is to get the truth out and give the American people the opportunity to make their own decision about this based on facts – not preconceived ideas or predetermined stories – but just the facts of what happened, he added.
The Georgia conservative accused the Democratic investigation into the riot of “proving something they wanted to be the truth.”
He went on to say that the liberal evidence was “the icing on the cake” and left out things that contradicted their story.
‘Look, I’m not here to prove anyone right. But we want the truth to prevail,” Loudermilk said.
DailyMail.com has contacted both Thompson and Cheney’s offices for comment.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk said investigation into ‘what really happened’ that day is growing thanks to support from new House Speaker Mike Johnson
Loudermilk said his investigation will focus on security failures on the days that included the erection of a gallows by Trump supporters, something used in the Biden campaign.
‘He uses images of the gallows being erected, which is something we have investigated. It was raised at six in the morning. How on earth could he stand all day? Is it with the Capitol Police there? That is something that on its face, someone should have removed,” Loudermilk said.
“We know there was sufficient information that there was going to be an attack on the Capitol. So the secret service knew about it. The FBI knew about it. The Ministry of Defense had intelligence. Homeland Security had intelligence. That information was sent to the Capitol Police Intelligence Division but was never passed on. The chief didn’t know anything about it,” he continued.
Loudermilk said intelligence indicated federal agents were in the crowd, which is common at large gatherings.
Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who planted pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the day before the attack on the Capitol.
And they continue to make new arrests regularly, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are released from prison after serving their sentences.
The cases are unfolding in the same courthouse where Trump will stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol.
“The Department of Justice will hold all perpetrators of January 6 accountable at any level under the law, regardless of whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the attack on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said earlier this month.
He said the cases filed by Graves and the special counsel in Trump’s federal case, Jack Smith, demonstrate that the department “adheres to long-standing standards to ensure the independence and integrity of our investigations.”