Trump’s forgotten inquisitor: How the Jan. 6 committee ‘forced’ DOJ to investigate former president

WASHINGTON — Since December, when the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 select committee released its damning final report, its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), has attempted to resume his usual low profile.

But in an exclusive interview this week with Raw Story, the quiet-tempered lawmaker said his special committee “forced” the Department of Justice to finally investigate the role then-President Donald Trump and his closest associates played in fomenting the failed insurrection.

“The work of the committee kind of forced DOJ to get engaged, because a lot of what we did we passed on to them,” Thompson told Raw Story just outside the Capitol on a muggy summer day.

Thompson — with a scraggly gray beard and the unhurried gait of a 75-year-old Southern gentleman — walks alone these days. Gone is his security detail and phalanx of staffers. No more idling SUV ready to whisk him away at a moment’s notice. The gaggle of Capitol Hill reporters that used to flock about him now professionally-stalks Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), George Santos (R-NY) or the other GOP political flavors of the week.

Everything changed when Republicans took over control of the House at the start of this 118th Congress.

Instead of investigating those who stormed the Capitol, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a censure resolution against Thompson last month, which – after more than 30 days of being public now – has only garnered one cosponsor, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC).

Greene and Gaetz also held a hearing into the J6 attack where the FBI, DOJ and Capitol Police were portrayed as guilty or culpable parties. The hearing took place at the very moment federal officials were arranging Trump in Miami on 37 felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified and other sensitive government documents.

“They're trying to normalize the abnormal,” Thompson said. “And so if that's how they see democracy at working, then that's who they are.”

Thompson told Raw Story his committee’s work speaks for itself — no matter how much Republicans try and rewrite history.

“The notion that somehow you can change the material facts in this situation, is just not the way it is,” Thompson said. “So I thought they would really legislate, come with their agenda, but their whole agenda is to undo everything that Democrats did. You gotta be in favor of something. It's like, okay, what are you gonna do? Wait until one of your wild cards say something stupid again?”

Thompson says he is proud the Jan. 6 special committee’s work is now being used by prosecutors who are convening a special grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., to investigate whether Trump attempted to illegally affect the outcome of the state’s 2020 presidential vote. The Jan. 6 committee, Thompson added, laid out an airtight case in its 800-plus page final report.

“There's no question in my mind, he knew everything that was going on. There was nothing that went on in Georgia that Donald Trump didn't know,” Thompson says.

Thompson says Georgia is key to it all, because of the recording of Trump’s call where he allegedly pressured Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to overturn the will of his people and fraudulently tilt the election against Democrat Joe Biden, who narrowly won the state.

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"I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump said on the Georgia call.

“He got caught,” Thompson said.

“How’d he get caught? What’s the smoking gun?” Raw Story asked.

“The Raffensperger call. And now I think there’s a couple calls out in Arizona,” Thompson said, referring to a newly revealed attempt by Trump to seemingly pressure then-Gov. Doug Ducey to overturn election results in Arizona, which Biden also won.

While Thompson thinks the Georgia case is airtight, he says that doesn’t mean it’s a lock.

“I would say based on the fact that, [Trump’s] role talking to the Georgia secretary of state, him having other people serving as his surrogates go talk to people, him promoting the electors who were not duly elected — all that is part of his orchestration,” Thompson said. “Now how the district attorney presents that [evidence] and on what charges?”

Thompson is the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee where he’s been busy this year defending Biden from attacks over his handling of security on the southern border.

Thompson doesn’t hold press conferences and generally remains silent these days. He points back to the Jan. 6 committee’s body of work and findings.

“Under no circumstances can anybody say, ‘No, we’re gonna erase it, because what you saw with your own eyes, wasn’t what you saw.’ So the work on the committee was tremendous,” Thompson told Raw Story. “Not only did we save our democracy, but in the long run, I think we strengthened it.”