Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) is calling for a formal investigation into the controversial House January 6 Select Committee, which critics say was formed under questionable circumstances and has been accused of misconduct.
When then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) established the committee in 2021, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy submitted a list of Republican representatives to be included. However, Pelosi broke with decades of House precedent by refusing to seat them, arguing that some of the names proposed by McCarthy were under investigation for voting against certifying the 2020 election. As a result, Pelosi appointed Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney as the committee’s designated “Republican” members. Both have since left Congress and become ardent opponents of President Donald Trump and the 77 million Americans who voted for him.
Banks, along with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), was one of the two House Republicans denied a seat on the “bipartisan” committee by Pelosi. Now a senator, Banks is urging Republican lawmakers to form their own panel to investigate the conduct of Pelosi’s January 6 Committee.
Cheney and Kinzinger, along with other committee members, were granted preemptive pardons by former President Biden during his final hours in the White House. However, President Trump has argued that these pardons are irrelevant, citing recent reports that Biden used an autopen to sign the documents, including the January 6 Committee pardons. “For months the Democrats said that under an old Supreme Court case, taking a pardon is an indication of guilt,” Banks wrote in an X post. “Under that logic, by accepting pardons, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, and the other January 6th committee members have effectively confessed to engaging in criminal conduct.”
The Republican senator then called on his colleagues to honor campaign promises by launching a formal investigation of Pelosi’s partisan committee. “Now that we know that their pardons were illegitimately signed by autopen, rendering them legally invalid, an investigation into the actions of every single committee member should be launched immediately!” Banks concluded.
In January, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that the chamber will launch a formal investigation into the conduct of the January 6 Committee. “House Republicans are proud of our work so far in exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated January 6 Select Committee during the 117th Congress, but there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said in a statement. “We are establishing this Select Subcommittee to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people.”
