U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) is demanding that the unredacted transcripts of interviews between Secret Service agents and the Jan. 6 investigative committee be returned to Congress.
Loudermilk wrote a letter on Friday telling the White House that the House wants those unaltered transcripts sent back to them.
He is in the midst of an investigation into the Democrat-led Jan. 6 panel. He specifically wants the unedited and unredacted testimony from “Secret Service agents or employees who were assigned to former President Trump on January 6, 2021″ and who testified in front of the committee.
“Once these records, including transcripts of testimony from the Secret Service agents and employees, have been returned in their original, unaltered format, I am willing to discuss any redactions you believe are necessary prior to these records being released publicly,” Loudermilk informed the committee in his letter.
(Video Credit: Rep. Barry Loudermilk)
The Jan. 6 committee interviewed a number of Secret Service agents who protected former President Trump on Jan. 6, including lead agent Bobby Engel and the agent who drove him to the rally at the Ellipse.
Loudermilk also told the White House that the subcommittee is willing to store the documents in a classified setting if it is needed. White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber was given a deadline of Aug. 30, 2023, to turn over the unaltered testimony.
This all comes in response to Sauber sending a letter last Tuesday that informed Loudermilk that the White House is inexplicably still reviewing transcripts of four Secret Service agents. He informed the congressman that the White House would make redactions to “protect sensitive operational and personal information” and then send them back to Congress and the National Archives.
Sauber also claimed that it was the chairman and vice chairman of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) who asked the White House to review the transcripts, according to Straight Arrow News.
NEW: @RepLoudermilk called on the White House to return several transcripts of interviews conducted by the House Jan. 6 committee “without alteration or redaction,” in a letter sent Friday obtained exclusively by @NBCNews. https://t.co/qsy3vtgEbI
— Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart) August 25, 2023
Loudermilk informed him that anything less than the original and unredacted interviews would be “unacceptable.”
He also took issue with Sauber’s statement that the transcripts would be turned over to the National Archives.
“These documents remain current records of the U.S. House of Representatives, which has designated the Committee on House Administration as their appropriate repository,” he wrote in his letter, adding that the Archives “has no role with respect to current records of the House.”
“Seems the White House is trying [to] redact and hide information on documents they do not own,” Loudermilk wrote on X. “Anything other than my subcommittee getting original, unreacted documents is unacceptable.”
Seems the White House is trying redact and hide information on documents they do not own. Anything other than my subcommittee getting original, unreacted documents is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/bfeB6yAhY7
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) August 25, 2023
BREAKING: It is imperative to my investigation that we recover all testimony, documents, videos, and data that were to be preserved by the J6 select committee. This means recovering them in their entirety, without redaction. The records sent to the White House and DHS are House… pic.twitter.com/LMs9EAgXUT
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) August 23, 2023
Loudermilk is warning that if he receives redacted copies instead of the originals, he will respond “appropriately.”
“The White House does not own these records, the House does,” Loudermilk told NBC News in an interview. “This was testimony given to a House committee — not just records from an executive branch agency.”
The Republican congressman launched an investigation into the panel last March. He is also delving into security failures at the Capitol complex surrounding the riot. That includes any failures by Capitol Police before, during, and after the incident.
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