Jan. 6 panel member Raskin: Holding McCarthy, others in contempt could raise constitutional questions

WORCESTER - U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, one of nine members of the Select House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said Wednesday that attempting to hold Republicans defying recently served subpoenas in contempt of Congress could be difficult constitutionally.

“Speaking only as one member - I think there would be complicated constitutional questions if we do that,” Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and former constitutional law professor, told the Telegram & Gazette in an interview following an event in the city.

Five Republican U.S. Representatives - including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy - are resisting subpoenas compelling their testimony to the Select Committee, placing Raskin and other members in the position of determining how to respond.

While the Select Committee has asked federal prosecutors to charge several former Trump officials for refusing to cooperate with its probe - and one, Stephen K. Bannon, has been charged - Raskin said referring sitting members of Congress is more complicated.

“There’s a constitutional principle in the speech and debate clause which is that members of Congress essentially can’t be held to account for their legislative actions outside of Congress itself,” Raskin said. “Arguably these aren’t legislative actions, if they are criminal in nature, but I think it’s far more likely we would use the resources we have internal to Congress to try to deal with this defiance, rather than go outside of Congress.”

Asked whether he was referring to the House Committee on Ethics, Raskin replied, “Hypothetically, but we haven’t made any decision of where to go.”

Raskin and his colleagues on the Select Committee - six other Democrats and two Republicans - are aiming to deliver a report on the Jan. 6 attack before the midterm elections Nov. 8.

Televised hearings begin June 9

On June 9, the Select Committee will open the first of eight planned televised hearings, some of which will air in prime time, to detail their findings so far.

Raskin, who Tweeted in April that the committee has “evidence to support the story of the worst presidential political offense against the Union in American history,” said Wednesday he expects it to deliver significant new information to the American people.

“(We) seek to develop a comprehensive portrait of the attack on the government of January 6, the causes behind the attack, and then what needs to be done in order to fortify our institutions against future insurrections and coups,” Raskin said, adding there are many questions to answer.

“There’s the question of funding, there’s the question of the inside political attack on Joe Biden’s majority in the Electoral College,” he said. “There is also a focus on the violent assault on the Capitol and the successful effort to block the counting of Electoral College votes for several hours.

“We want to look at the coordination of different elements in this horrific attack on American democracy.”

While Raskin readily answered the query as to McCarthy and other Republican holdouts, he started his remarks on the subject by stressing that the vast majority of people on all sides of the political spectrum have cooperated with the Select Committee’s probe.

“Most people want us to get all the information we need in order to deliver the report,” Raskin said, adding that committee members “don’t have a lot of time to spend on a wild goose chase with people who decide to give the finger to the rule of law.”

Glenn L. Kirschner, a former longtime federal prosecutor and NBC news analyst, recently opined that McCarthy would be committing “multiple crimes” if he defied the Select Committee’s subpoena.

Act of refusal itself telling

In his interview Wednesday, Raskin said to him, the very act of refusal will be seen by many as telling.

“To me, it is a form of punishment that they’re exposing themselves as people who won’t comply with the law and participate in an investigation into the worst domestic violent insurrection against the United States Congress itself in American history,” he said. “This did not even happen during the Civil War.”

Raskin, who served as the lead impeachment manager for the unsuccessful bid to convict former President Donald Trump in the Senate on allegations he incited the Jan. 6 attack, said McCarthy and other colleagues have an obligation to at least appear for testimony.

“There are a number of witnesses who have come before the committee and asserted their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves,” Raskin said, such as Trump ally Roger Stone.

“We’ve respected that,” Raskin said. “But it’s not a proper response to blow off the Congress of the United States.”

McCarthy, in a letter explaining his resistance to the subpoena, said it is not valid in large part because the committee does not, as its authorizing resolution states, have five Republican and 13 overall members.

According to The New York Times, several judges have rejected that argument in lawsuits.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who appointed the committee, has taken heavy GOP criticism for not adopting members McCarthy proposed who she believed would be obstructionist.

McCarthy ultimately withdrew all five of his proposed members - including Jim Jordan of Ohio, who is now, like McCarthy, under subpoena - and Pelosi appointed two GOP Trump critics, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

The Select Committee was created after Republicans blocked a proposal that would have created a separate, independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attacks.

That commission, which would have been similar to the 9/11 Commission, would have had ten members - five appointed by Democrats, and five appointed by Republicans.

'Coup' against democracy ongoing

Raskin and U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern of Worcester - who invited his Maryland colleague to Northampton Tuesday for a Town Hall they called “Defending our Democracy,” told the T&G Wednesday they believe the “coup” against democracy is ongoing.

From Republican candidates for office pushing the “big lie” that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen to “voter suppression” laws in multiple states, they said, democracy is under active attack.

“We have a lot of changes to make in order to ensure that democracy can flourish in our century,” Raskin said, noting that, as President Abraham Lincoln observed in his famous Gettysburg Address, the success of the democratic experiment has never been a given.

Raskin said recent events in America and Europe - especially the Russian invasion of Ukraine - have rekindled a battle for democratic ideals he once believed was settled.

“I never imagined that we would be in the fight of our lives right now to defend democratic institutions and progress. I always thought that the 20th century was the century where liberal democracy defeated its totalitarian enemies,” he said.

“But our century, alas, has seen the return of so many of the monsters that we thought had been slain in the last century. We are dealing with virulent racism, authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, fascism and autocracy.

“It’s really up to each generation to defend democracy, and really remake and improve it,” he added. “We have to use this as an opportunity to make progress on these anti-democratic blockages we’re suffering from.”

Contact Brad Petrishen at brad.petrishen@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BPetrishenTG. 

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Jan. 6 committee member Jamie Raskin raises concerns over subpoenas