The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Jan. 6 House committee to turn over some transcripts of depositions it has conducted as part of its investigation into the attack on the Capitol, according to Tuesday reporting from The New York Times.
According to the Times, Kenneth Polite Jr., the assistant attorney general for the criminal division, and Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote to the panel’s investigative lead on April 20, saying the committee has conducted interviews that “may contain information relevant to a criminal investigation we are conducting.”
The development comes as the committee members have become more vocal in their frustration over a lack of action from the Justice Department in targeting high-ranking Trump-era officials in their own investigation.
While the DOJ has brought charges against at least 800 people involved with the attack, it’s only recently brought them against leadership of the far-right Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy, a weighty charge that can carry up to 20 years in prison.
The Jan. 6 committee, meanwhile, has spoken with high-ranking White House officials and others in the Trump administration in the course of conducting more than 1,000 interviews.
That includes former DOJ officials who were pressured by former President Trump to advance investigations into his baseless claims of election fraud, members of Trump’s own family and other aides who described efforts to coordinate with lawmakers and state officials in order to block certification of the election results.
The committee declined to comment, while the DOJ did not immediately respond to request for comment.
According to the Times, the committee and the DOJ have not yet reached an agreement on whether to release the depositions.
It’s unclear which of the committee’s witnesses might be of interest to federal prosecutors.
Earlier this year, the Times reported that the department had expanded the scope of its criminal investigation to include those involved in organizing the rallies that directly preceded the attack on the Capitol, as well as the scheme to organize fake slates of electors who would have cast their “votes” for Trump in states that President Biden won.
Source: The Hill
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