The January 6th Commission is Illegal, Illegitimate, and Violates the Constitution

by

       George Sontag

      When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would be forming a committee in the House to investigate the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, she told us it was necessary because “it is imperative that we seek the truth of what happened.” So, it became unmistakably clear from her words immediately afterwards and from the composition of the committee she selected, that this was never intended to be the committee’s agenda. Rather, the “truth” Pelosi had in mind is a committee conclusion that supports her political agenda, rather than the product of an actual “investigation.” And to guarantee the committee’s conclusion, she ensured that it would be packed with House members who share her political agenda and who had publicly announced their conclusions before being appointed.

      Let us stop here because investigation IS NOT the job of Congress. The Constitution allows Congress to oversee the workings of government. The committee system in Congress provides for hearings to consider factors related to legislation, take reports from government agencies, and receive information necessary to craft laws within constitutional constraints. The Constitution bars investigations that have little or no real purpose other than simply to find out “what happened.” Even if the event is dramatic and high profile, an investigative committee must have a legitimate legislative purpose other than “getting to the bottom” of things which makes the January 6 Committee illegitimate and UN-Constitutional The U.S. Supreme Court has noted that “…Congress [is not] a law enforcement or trial agency. These are functions of the executive and judicial departments of government. No inquiry is an end in itself; it must be related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress. Investigations conducted solely for the personal aggrandizement of the investigators or to ‘punish’ those investigated are indefensible.”

      Oversight of the executive branch is permissible, but the January 6 events do not fall into that category because the subject of the inquiry involves private citizens. There is a line of U.S. Supreme Court cases from Kilbourn v. Thompson (1880), through Quinn v. U.S. (1955), Hutchinson v. U.S. (1962), Eastland v. Unites States Servicemen’s Fund (1975) and the recent Trump v. Mazars, LLP (2019), all tell us that if you think it is the biggest crime in American history, the proper venue for investigation, including subpoenas and hearings, is not Congress. It is the executive and judiciary.

      That stated. Pelosi’s political agenda for this committee has became even clearer from her admittedly “unprecedented” decision to violate the House’s long-standing institutional protocol by refusing to seat members of the investigative committee selected by the Republican leader in the House. Pelosi rejected spots on the committee for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, a man whose has a lifetime of public service. Could their rejection possibly be linked to their demands that the investigation examine what Pelosi knew in advance about the potential for violence at the Capitol on January 6th, what, if anything, she could have done about it and what she actually did or did not do?

      The New York Times reported that “records, and information from two people familiar with the matter, suggest that federal law enforcement had a far greater visibility into the assault on the Capitol, even as it was taking place, than was previously known.” This explosive report claims to show that at least two alleged Capitol riot participants were actually government informants. It’s already known that the Proud Boys leader, Enrique Tarrio, had been an FBI informant. The Times report concentrates on yet another FBI informant in the right-leaning group who reportedly warned his handler in real-time that some bad stuff was going on at the Capitol. This latest informant maintains that there was never any plan by the group to violently storm the Capitol and, indeed, there’s evidence to back that claim.

      The revelations in the Times reveal that there was noconspiracy to storm the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, as alleged by the Department of Justice. Indeed, the paper concludes the obvious: that “the new information is likely to complicate the government’s efforts to prove the high-profile conspiracy charges it has brought against several members of the Proud Boys.” The report, based on documents seen by reporters, also raises questions about whether FBI Director Chris Wray lied to Congress about the FBI’s lack of foreknowledge of the melee. It also begs the question of why the FBI and other police agencies failed to harden the Capitol in advance.

      As it did in laying out the details of the FBI involvement in the Governor Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot, where twelve of the eighteen were government informants, the news site detailed the government connections with the Capitol Building protest and riot. At a time when Americans have discoverer that the FBI lied about the Trump-Russia hoax and tried to seed the story in all layers of political Washington, it would come to no one’s surprise to learn that the FBI’s fingerprints were all over plans for their self-styled “insurrection.”

      The Court has held that Congress has no “general power to inquire into private affairs and compel disclosures.” (Quinn) Further, a congressional subpoena is only valid if it is “related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress.” It is clear that the January 6^th commission is illegal, illegitimate, and UN-Constitutional but with the country falling under the minions of the Democrat Corporate Socialists, the law and the Constitution mean nothing to those of the traitorous elite.