(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- In a letter last week, Department of Justice officials chastised the January 6 select committee for not turning over the transcripts of witness interviews the committee has conducted that are relevant to the DOJ’s ongoing criminal investigations into the January 6 riot.
Assistant Attorney Generals Kenneth Polite Jr. and Matthew Olsen wrote that it was clear that interviews conducted by the select committee are not only relevant to the DOJ’s ongoing criminal investigations but are also “likely relevant to specific prosecutions that have already commenced.”
Polite and Olsen blasted the committee for failing to give them access to the witness transcripts, claiming it has complicated the department’s ability to prosecute January 6 defendants.
Also signing the letter was the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves who is prosecuting the case against members of the Proud Boys.
Prosecutors in the Proud Boys case said the Department of Justice can’t access the committee’s transcripts and cannot compel Congress to provide the transcripts.
Committee chair Bennie Thompson confirmed on Thursday that the committee received the letter and was reviewing it, but added that the committee would wait until after the hearings to respond.
So far, the select committee has interviewed over a thousand people, including many who haven’t been charged with a crime.
American Greatness senior editor Julie Kelly, who has chronicled the trials and court proceedings involving the Jan 6 defendants for the last year and a half warned last week that the reason the Department of Justice wants the transcripts of interviews is so it can skip the subpoena process necessary to compel testimony from the committee’s witnesses.
On Friday, Bennie Thompson agreed to begin turning over the witness testimony to US Attorney Matthew Graves.
Julie Kelly also warned that any witness testimony turned over to the Justice Department will likely be omitted when the committee’s final report is released to the public.
The committee leaders have said they plan to issue a final report by the end of the year.
