There is no question that Minority House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a loyal Republican ally of former President Donald Trump appears to be doing everything in his power to try to obstruct the House Investigation of the January 6th insurrection attempt at the US Capitol building. On January 19th, McCarthy revealed a list of five House members who he had selected to participate in the House Committee that will be investigating the January 6th terrorist attack. It was immediately obvious to followers of Washington politics that two of McCarthy’s picks: Representative Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio were clearly chosen for their willingness to throw outrageous tantrums and obstruct any progress by the committee.

Shortly after the announcement, Banks released a statement from his House member website filled with desperate whataboutism and spewing conspiracy theories that Nancy Pelosi was really the one to blame for the January 6th insurrection. Jim Jordan is well known for throwing ridiculous temper-tantrums and spouting nonsense conspiracy theories in the middle of House Hearings. Nancy Pelosi announced that she would not seat either Banks or Jordan on the committee, and McCarthy, angered that he wouldn’t have his two lieutenants on board to obstruct the proceedings, immediately pulled all five of his recommended members from the January 6th committee.

It is a violation of 18 USC § 1505 – Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees, for an individual to attempt to obstruct an investigation by a Congressional committee. Fortunately for McCarthy, he’s protected by the Speech & Debate clause of the Constitution, so he cannot be charged by the Department of Justice for his efforts to obstruct the January 6th investigation. Unfortunately for McCarthy, Pelosi does have the option of initiating removal proceedings against him, based upon his violations of the language of 18 USC § 1505. The Constitution states that members of Congress shall not be questioned about legislative actions “in any other place”, referring specifically to the Congressional chambers. While that language precludes any investigation of McCarthy by Executive branch agencies, it does not prevent investigations by either the House Ethics Committee, or a special investigative committee appointed to determine whether McCarthy should be removed from the House. Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution states that “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.”

Republicans have responded to news of investigations of the January 6th committee by insisting that “Democrats are only doing this to try to embarrass the Republican Party.” Rather than allowing themselves to become defensive when Republicans resort to this kind of gas-lighting, Democrats need to recognize such statements as a de-facto admission of guilt, and respond with statements akin to “you just admitted that actions were taken that would cause reason for embarrassment, that members of your party are guilty of improper behavior.” Democrats absolutely should try to embarrass the Republican Party. American taxpayers pay the salaries of our lawmakers and if those lawmakers are engaging in partnerships with anti-government groups that could prove “embarrassing” then we have every right to know what they’ve been up to, and it would be a dereliction of duty for House Democrats to refuse to investigate McCarthy’s obstruction. To House Democrats: don’t worry about the possibility of actually getting a two-thirds majority on McCarthy’s removal vote. Focus on doing everything within your power to reveal the full extent of elected official’s involvement in the planning for January 6th. Do everything in your power to publicize the full extent of Republican cooperation with the domestic terrorists who attacked the Capitol. Once that’s done, have a roll call vote so there’s a record of which members voted to remove McCarthy, and which ones should be painted as sponsors of domestic terrorism. The preservation of our Democracy requires it.