The partisan January 6 Committee on Tuesday announced the postponement of Wednesday’s scheduled hearing.
“There’s no big deal, but I’ll tell you the putting together the video and exhibits is an exhausting exercise for our very small video staff. So we’re trying to — we were going to have 1-2-3 in one week and it’s just it’s too much to put it all together. So we’re trying to give them a little room to do their technical work, is mainly it,” committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told MSNBC on Tuesday.
The postponement comes after committee members disagreed Monday evening on whether or not former President Donald Trump would be referred to the Justice Department (DOJ) on criminal charges.
Chair of the committee Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) stated there would be no criminal referrals of former President Trump, but Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) contradicted Thompson minutes later.
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) also chimed in, saying, “If criminal activity occurred, it is our responsibility to report that activity to the DOJ.”
The contradiction was the second hiccup the committee had on Monday.
Moments before the committee was to hear testimony from Bill Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager — who is currently the campaign manager for Cheney’s primary opponent — Stepien’s wife went into labor. Stepien failed to appear before the committee on Monday.
Thus far, the partisan committee has voted to recommend two of Trump’s former aides be held in contempt of Congress. The House has also voted for many contempt referrals, though only two have been prosecuted by President Biden’s DOJ.
The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday. It is not clear if the Wednesday hearing will be rescheduled.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.