GOP Sen. Mike Lee Calls for Probe of Jan. 6 Panel After Tapes Released

Amid the release of security footage from inside the Capitol Building, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Saturday called for an investigation into the House Jan. 6 Committee, and accused the panel of cherry-picking evidence to support its narrative.

“Why didn’t Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger ever refer to any of these tapes?” Lee asked on X, referring to video showing Capitol Police helping people through the building Jan. 6, 2021.

“Maybe they never looked for them,” he continued. “Maybe they never even questioned their own narrative. Maybe they were just too busy selectively leaking the text messages of Republicans they wanted to defeat.”

Former Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., were the only Republicans on the nine-member panel, the members of which were all appointed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. While Kinzinger did not seek reelection in 2022, Cheney lost to Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., in the 2022 primary by nearly 40 points.

“Taxpayer dollars funded the sham J6 committee,” Lee added in a series of follow-up posts on X, adding “we need to investigate the J6 committee.”

“Given the evidence they apparently suppressed, how much footage (and how many other records) do you think Nancy Pelosi and the J6 committee deliberately lost or destroyed?” he asked.

The Utah senator also replied to a post by Cheney where she shared video of the unrest outside the Capitol that day.

“Liz, we’ve seen footage like that a million times,” he said. “You made sure we saw that — and nothing else. It’s the other stuff — what you deliberately hid from us — that we find so upsetting. Nice try. P.S. How many of these guys are feds? (As if you’d ever tell us).”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., began releasing 40,000 hours of security camera footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol protest Friday.

“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said.

According to the Justice Department, more than 1,100 people have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and more than 400 have been charged with assaulting police officers. Protesters reportedly caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage to the building.