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GOP gubernatorial candidate sues J6 committee for not having any REAL Republicans, refuses to testify

September 2, 2022 | | Print Article

In response to being subpoenaed by the Jan. 6th committee, Trump-backed Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee and state Sen. Doug Mastriano has sued the committee on the grounds it doesn’t have the legal standing to compel him to testify.

Mastriano’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, explained to Insider that without a “properly appointed” Republican member on the committee signing off on the subpoena, his client believes the subpoena shouldn’t be counted as legitimate.

While it’s true the committee does boast two Republicans — Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — the lawsuit makes the case that they’re “nominally members of the Republican Party,” meaning they’re Republicans in name only.

Specifically, the suit alleges the two “follow ideologies that are inconsistent with their own party, instead choosing to pursue the priorities of the Democratic Caucus.”

The suit is correct in this regard. Both “Republicans” consistently act and talk like Democrats, ergo why they’re both beloved by Democrats. So much so that Cheney begged Democrats to vote for her in her primary race last month.

Plus, neither Cheney nor Kinzinger were appointed by House Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Both were predictably appointed by Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi.

Why are true Republicans necessary for the committee, though? Because “key witness protection elements — from who conducts the questioning to the release of deposition testimony — rest with the minority party members,” as reported by The Patriot-News.

“Those protections are missing in this committee, Parlatore contends, since House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s choices to serve on the panel were never accepted by Speaker Nancy J. Pelosi, which means the select committee has no ‘ranking minority member’ designated by the House Republican Conference.”

Why, likewise, is Mastriano even relevant to the committee? It’s because he took a part in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election.

“Mastriano was the Trump legal team’s ‘point person’ for a scheme to appoint fake electors to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. He has pushed false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and chartered buses to bring protesters to Washington on January 6,” according to Insider.

That being said, the current crisis could have been avoided had the committee been more willing to play ball.

Insider explains that Mastriano originally cooperated with the committee: “Mastriano has turned over documents to the January 6 committee and in August sat down for a voluntary interview with the panel.”

However, that meeting was cut short “after he insisted on recording the session, citing a fear that his comments could be taken out of context. The committee then moved to compel him to appear for a deposition.”

Parlatore stressed to Insider that his client is still perfectly willing to testify, but only if he can record the deposition so that he can dispute any false characterizations.

He also stressed that Mastriano is unwilling to simply cite the Fifth Amendment because that too would no doubt be used against him.

“They would love nothing more than for him to plead the fifth because then they would use it as propaganda. Senator Mastriano did nothing wrong. He has no reason to plead the fifth,” Parlatore said.

What remains unclear is whether the suit will be successful.

“A host of other litigants have gone to court to challenge the committee’s lawfulness, and none have emerged victorious,” Politico notes.

Mastriano is indeed one of many who’ve been targeted by the committee, including most recently former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

However, for the time being, the committee is only asking for Gingrich’s voluntary participation.

“The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has sent a letter to former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich seeking his voluntary cooperation to discuss his role in promoting false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen,” according to CNN.

“The committee wants to learn more about communications Gingrich had with senior advisers in former President Donald Trump’s White House about television advertisements that relied on false claims about the election.”

In a letter to Gingrich, the committee wrote as follows: “Some of the information that we have obtained includes email messages that you exchanged with senior advisors to President Trump and others, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller, in which you provided detailed input into television advertisements that repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election.”

“These advertising efforts were not designed to encourage voting for a particular candidate. Instead, these efforts attempted to cast doubt on the outcome of the election after voting had already taken place,” the letter continues.

Vivek Saxena
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