WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, signaled Sunday that he won’t cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a lengthy letter addressed to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Jordan said he doesn’t have anything worth sharing with the committee.
“I have no relevant information that would assist the select committee in advancing any legitimate legislative purpose,” Jordan wrote.
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Jordan, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was one of the 147 lawmakers who took part in the last-ditch effort to derail Joe Biden’s legitimate victory by raising objections to the Electoral College results last January.
In his letter, Jordan said the committee’s request to speak with him “amounts to an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives. This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry, violates core Constitutional principles, and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”
Jordan had been asked by the committee members to meet with them on Monday. He has repeatedly bashed the investigation by the committee, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi barred him from participating in. Despite his strongly worded letter, it remains unclear what communication, if any, Jordan might undertake with the committee.
“Even if I had information to share with the select committee, the actions and statements of Democrats in the House of Representatives show that you are not conducting a fair-minded and objective inquiry,” he said.
The committee told Jordan last month that it wanted to speak with him about his communications with Trump on the day of the attack.
In response to Jordan’s letter, a spokesperson for the committee said that the reason it asked to meet with Jordan was because “he worked directly with President Trump and the Trump legal team to attempt to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election.”
“Mr. Jordan has admitted that he spoke directly to President Trump on January 6th and is thus a material witness,” the spokesperson said. “Mr. Jordan’s letter to the committee fails to address these facts. Mr. Jordan has previously said that he would cooperate with the committee’s investigation, but it now appears that the Trump team has persuaded him to try to hide the facts and circumstances of January 6th.”
Jordan was also one of the lawmakers whose text messages to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were released by the committee last month.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
