The Washington Post reports that several staffers working on the final report for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress have expressed frustration with vice-chair Liz Cheney’s insistence that the final report focus on Donald Trump’s involvement in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
Some staffers have quit the investigation while others are pushing other committee members to include details about other aspects of the investigation in the report; according to the Post, some have complained the report is becoming a Cheney 2024 presidential campaign product. The investigation was split into teams which each specialized on one aspect of the attack, including things like financing, the failure of DC law enforcement, or the role of extremist groups in the attack.
A senior committee staffer told team members in a conference call that the work of the Gold team–the team focusing on Trump’s actions and role–would be the focus of the report, while other work would be excluded unless it connected to Trump. Cheney and others have disputed the characterization of the comment, saying other aspects of the investigation will be included in the final report, and committee members have said the committee intends to make its work product and much of its collected material available online for public review, so inclusion in the final printed report is less important.
For her part, Cheney said other committee members can contact her with questions, suggestions and requirements for the final report, which is expected by the end of 2022. Cheney and others on the staff have noted that the quality of some of the reports stemming from drier topics like financing may be lengthy and important, but won’t hold readers’ attention. The team fears the committee’s report will land with a thud the way the Mueller report did because it was a recitation of facts.