These 7 House Republicans aren't cooperating with the January 6 committee and here's how they've justified blowing off the investigation

House Minority Leader McCarthy and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming appeared together at a 2020 press conference, prior to landing on opposite sides of the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021 siege at the US Capitol.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

• The January 6 committee has interviewed nearly 1,000 witnesses about what its members say was an effort to overturn the US election.
• Seven House Republicans have, so far, elected not to answer the committee's questions.

While some Trump administration officials have been indicted for refusing to cooperate with the January 6 select committee's investigation into the deadly siege at the US Capitol, a half-dozen House Republicans (and counting) have, so far, sidestepped testifying before the congressional panel.

The holdouts, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, have offered varying reasons for not participating — ranging from complaining about the committee's public outreach to assailing the "baseless witch hunt."

The committee and its witnesses, meanwhile, are presenting accounts that Trump and his advisors were informed their efforts to overturn the election possibly illegal but pressed on, with some of them seeking pardons in the Trump administration's final days.

Their arguments could come back to haunt them if they win back control of the House this fall, and Jordan or House Committee on Administration ranking member Rodney Davis of Illinois try to flex the new majority party's powers next year only to have House Democrats recycle the precedent-setting rejections.