House Jan. 6 committee files shielded from GOP due to ‘national security,’ top Democrat says

Federal agencies are withholding some Jan. 6 witness transcripts from House Republican investigators due to “national security” concerns, the Democrat who led the now-disbanded committee has revealed.

Former Jan. 6 Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson denied in a recent letter to House Oversight Administration subcommittee Chair Barry Loudermilk that Democrats destroyed any files from the investigation into the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, said the select committee offered up as many records as possible, but that government agencies expressed “national security” concerns about a “small number of transcripts.” He urged Mr. Loudermilk and his panel to go back to those agencies to seek the missing transcripts.

Mr. Thompson also said there were additional concerns about making the documents available, such as the safety of witnesses.

The Jan. 6 committee is under scrutiny by GOP lawmakers on the oversight panel investigating more than 100 encrypted files from the 2021 probe that they say were deleted before Republicans took over the chamber.

In a letter last week to Mr. Thompson, Mr. Loudermilk, Georgia Republican, said his computer forensic team was able to recover the 117 deleted digital records from hard drives archived by the Jan. 6 committee. One recovered file disclosed the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived.

Mr. Loudermilk said they learned that most of the recovered files were password-protected and that it prevented his committee from determining what they contained, prompting him to request the passwords from Mr. Thompson.

Mr. Thompson called the allegations “false.” He said Mr. Loudermilk’s accusations were a “futile effort to amplify conspiracy theories and attack the credibility of the select committee and outside prosecutors.”

He wrote, “In your latest missive, you raise the specter of encrypted, password-protected files. The mere accusation can keep alive this subterfuge of ’secret evidence’ that exonerates the ex-President [Trump] of his culpability for the insurrection on January 6, 2021. But alas, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, and I will not speculate.”

Mr. Thompson said the select committee “worked diligently” to preserve the committee records and archived more than 1 million pages of records.

“At the end of the select committee’s work, however, government agencies expressed national security concerns about a small number of transcripts,” Mr. Thompson wrote. “In letters properly archived to provide the successor committee visibility into their security review, we instructed the agencies to return the transcripts for archiving upon completion.”

According to Mr. Loudermilk, Mr. Thompson sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House.

Additionally, he alleged that Mr. Thompson claimed to have turned over 4 terabytes of digital files, but the hard drives archived with the Clerk of the House contain less than 3 terabytes of data.

Mr. Loudermilk has been facing roadblocks as he seeks the Jan. 6 select committee’s interview transcripts from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.

He wrote letters last week to White House Counsel Richard A. Sauber and Department of Homeland Security counsel Jonathan Meyer requesting “unedited and unredacted transcripts” of White House and DHS testimony to the Jan. 6 committee.

“Based on records in our possession and public reporting, we know that numerous Secret Service employees were interviewed who were either with former President Trump or in proximity to former President Trump on Jan. 6, 2021,” Mr. Loudermilk wrote. “It is extremely concerning [that] House Democrats did not archive the transcripts of these testimonies as required by House rules, but instead hid them from House Republicans by sending them to your office.”

He added, “If you continue to refuse to return these records, I will have no other choice than to take steps to compel you to return these records.”

The White House and DHS attorneys missed a deadline of Wednesday set by Mr. Loudermilk, but it is unclear what steps the House panel plans to take.