Lost in the news from the Congress on Tuesday, obscured by the slow-roasting of Robert Hur, was the release of some work product from another congressional committee, this one managing against all possible odds to be even more comically farcical than the carnival midway show presided over by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Van Heusen). The work on this cabaret act was done by a subcommittee of the House Administration and Oversight Committee. The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Republican of Georgia. For some context that shortly will become relevant, here's a video of Rep. Loudermilk, leading one of those famous "tours" of the Capitol on January 5, 2021. From the Washington Post, in June 2022:

The Jan. 6 committee on Wednesday morning released new details about the group Loudermilk led around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5. The basics of its letter: According to surveillance footage, the letter says, Loudermilk led a tour of “approximately ten individuals” through a trio of House office buildings and near entrances to the tunnels to the Capitol; The committee indicates that participants acted in an unusual manner, taking photographs of areas “not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”; It says one of those people (who at one point photographed what appeared to be a staircase) marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6. While near the Capitol, someone the committee identifies as the same man recorded a video with threatening words for Democratic members of Congress. “There’s no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler; we’re coming for you,” the man says in footage provided by the committee. We’re “coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, Schumer — even you, AOC. We’re coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs. How about that, Pelosi? … When I get done with you, you gonna need a shine up on top of that bald head.”; At another point, the man shows video of someone he describes as “our fearless leader,” and the other man shows the pointed tip of his flagpole. They suggest it’s intended for someone in particular, and the other man makes a spearing gesture.

I mean, who hasn't wanted souvenir photographs of the staircases in the basement of the Capitol? Anyway, Loudermilk launched an "investigation," allegedly into the performance of the Capitol police on January 6, but, actually is a smoke machine that will act as a mechanism for creating alibis for the former president*'s current campaign. It's also an assault against the credibility of the findings of the January 6 commission. Already, this committee has begin to take potshots at January 6 whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson, and it has launched the customary spasm of pointless subpoenas and demands for testimony, each one of which constitutes another layer of smoke designed to obscure what actually happened during the insurrection, and who actually was to blame. On Tuesday, it issued an 80-page "report" containing the committee's preliminary "findings." From The Hill:

The 80-page report of initial findings, released by Loudermilk, amplifies that narrative. It blames the Jan. 6 attack on leaders of the U.S. Capitol Police, for a failure to provide proper security; questions the reliability of the select committee’s star witness, Cassidy Hutchinson; and accuses former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of fashioning a one-sided investigation in which the facts were manipulated and Trump’s guilt was predetermined before the first witness was called...
...Among the top targets in the GOP report was Hutchinson, the former special assistant to ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows who testified before the Jan. 6 panel on a handful of occasions — including during a public hearing where she delivered a number of bombshell allegations about the ex-president and other members of Congress. Republicans zeroed in on — and sought to disprove — one of Hutchinson’s most shocking claims: that Trump lunged at his security detail and at the steering wheel of a presidential vehicle when he was told he could not meet his supporters, who were marching to the Capitol after his speech on the Ellipse.

Speaker Moses is, of course, right on board with this latest waste of time and money.

“This House Administration Oversight Subcommittee investigation is necessary to correct the incomplete narrative advanced by the partisan Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, and today’s initial report is an important step in that process,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement.

Except, of course, oops...

Left unmentioned in the investigative findings are the details of Trump’s role surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, including his refusal to concede defeat following the 2020 election; his decision to stage a rally in Washington on the day Congress was to formalize the election results; his words encouraging thousands of supporters — some of them armed — to march on the Capitol to protest the election results; and his hours-long silence from the White House while a mob of his supporters attacked police officers and stormed into the Capitol building.

Not that any of that stuff is relevant. In response, January 6 committee Bennie Thompson relied on some additional inconvenient facts.

“Loudermilk is merely trying to deflect from Donald Trump’s responsibility for the violence of January 6th and his own refusal to answer the Select Committee’s questions,” Thompson said in a statement.

Loudermilk has promised to arrange that his committee hold the customary public snipe hunts at a later date. Nothingburgers will be sizzling on the grill just in time for spring.

Headshot of Charles P. Pierce
Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.