House January 6 committee's 'failure' to turn over transcripts is hurting criminal investigations, Justice Department says

• Top DOJ leaders said the House January 6 panel's transcripts could be relevant to prosecutions.
• The Justice Department previously requested access to the House committee's transcripts in April.

The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol has unnecessarily complicated criminal cases with its "failure" to turn over interview transcripts to prosecutions, the Justice Department said in a letter sent Wednesday to the congressional panel.

With the two-page letter, the Justice Department ratcheted up the pressure on the House committee to release transcripts of the more than 1,000 interviews the congressional panel has conducted during its months-long examination of the Capitol attack and former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The Justice Department previously requested transcripts in April, but Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House January 6 committee, responded that it would be premature for the panel to share its work while its inquiry remains ongoing.

In renewing the request for those transcripts, the Justice Department said the committee's interviews could be relevant not only "to our overall criminal investigations, but are likely relevant to specific prosecutions that have already commenced."

"The Select Committee's failure to grant the Department access to these transcripts complicates the Department's ability to investigate and prosecute those who engaged in criminal conduct in relation to the January 6 attack on the Capitol," Justice Department leaders wrote. "Accordingly, we renew our request that the Select Committee provide us with copies of the transcripts of all the interviews it has conducted to date."

The letter's signatories included Kenneth Polite and Matthew Olsen — the respective heads of the Justice Department's criminal and national security divisions — along with Matt Graves, the US attorney in Washington, DC, overseeing the more than 800 prosecutions stemming from the Capitol attack.

Members of the House January 6 committee defended the panel's approach to the Justice Department following a public hearing Thursday that highlighted Trump's efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to prevent the certification of Biden's electoral victory.

Asked whether the committee would turn over the transcripts, Thompson said, "We can't stop our work because someone writes us a letter."

"They can't just come in and interrupt our work," he added.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic member of the House committee, said the panel "will get everything to them in the appropriate timeframe."

The Justice Department's re-upped request reflected the urgency and wide-ranging nature of the criminal investigation into January 6, an inquiry that has expanded to more closely examine the possible culpability of figures in Trump's orbit who abetted the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

At a recent court hearing for five members of the far-right Proud Boys group, a federal prosecutor said the Justice Department expects the House committee to release interview transcripts in September. But the letter made clear that the Justice Department wants the transcripts much sooner as it mounts criminal prosecutions and considers bringing additional cases.

With the overlap between the congressional and criminal investigations, the Justice Department said it was "critical" for the House committee to provide access to all of its interview transcripts.

"Moreover, it is critical that the Department be able to evaluate the credibility of witnesses who have provided statements to multiple governmental entities in assessing the strength of any potential criminal prosecutions and to ensure that all relevant evidence is considered during the criminal investigations," the Justice Department leaders wrote. "We cannot be sure that all relevant evidence has been considered without access to the transcripts that are uniquely within the Select Committee's possession."

The department's letter came just days after a split among House January 6 committee members spilled into public view about whether the congressional panel should consider referring Trump or others to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution based on its findings.

Thompson told reporters that making such referrals is "not our job." But Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's Republican vice chair, tweeted that the panel has "not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals."

The Justice Department sent its letter the same day federal prosecutors secured their latest conviction at trial in a January 6 case. On Wednesday, Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, found Kevin Seefried and his son, Hunter Seefried, guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and several other charges related to their participation in the Capitol attack.

The trial featured testimony from Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who was widely hailed in the aftermath of January 6 for leading rioters away from lawmakers. Goodman recalled how Kevin Seefried carried a Confederate flag inside the Capitol and made a jabbing motion with it to create distance between himself and the Capitol police officer.

This is a developing story.