New Jan. 6 subcommittee empaneled to tackle pipe bombs, fed-surrection, other issues

After nearly eight months of wrangling over jurisdictional and turf issues, a new Jan. 6 select subcommittee will begin oversight and investigation work on Sept. 2, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday.

The new investigation panel will be a subgroup of the House Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who did extensive investigative work on Jan. 6 issues during the 118th Congress that closed on Jan. 3, 2025.

'January 6th was the fulcrum event for the weaponization of government.'

The subcommittee, which will have full subpoena power, will be known as the Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6, 2021. During the previous legislative session, Loudermilk’s Jan. 6 work was under the auspices of the Committee on House Administration and its chairman, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.).

Establishment of a Jan. 6 committee was a high priority of President Donald J. Trump, and it took the president’s persuasive skills to smooth over the disputes that delayed formation of the subcommittee. Final details were hashed out during recent meetings at the White House, senior officials told Blaze News.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Blaze News that establishment of the committee is a milestone.

RELATED: Metropolitan Police Department refuses public access to Jan. 6 use-of-force reports

The new Jan. 6 subcommittee will have a full slate of issues to explore. Getty Images

“This is an important development,” Fitton said. “The challenge is the investigation must turn inward on the House! Who protected [Lt. Michael] Byrd? Who made decisions and when about U.S. Capitol security measures? What about collusion with Biden DOJ, Fani Willis, etc., to jail Trump and other Americans?"

“There is no comparable congressional corruption and abuse in American history,” Fitton said.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, said establishment of the J6 committee is long overdue.

“January 6th was the fulcrum event for the weaponization of government,” Howell told Blaze News. “It provided the supposed moral cover and justification for some of the worst abuses by law enforcement and the intelligence community in United States history.

Long overdue

“This committee should have been stood up long ago, particularly when it became evident that the supposed Weaponization Subcommittee was an unserious exercise, but better late than never,” Howell said. “There is much work ahead, and I expect there to be many fights over the enforcement of subpoenas. The Oversight Project stands ready to assist in any way we can.”

Although the subcommittee won’t officially begin work until after the August recess, some key staff are expected to remain in Washington setting the foundation for the first investigations to launch once the House is back in September.

The new Select Subcommittee comes into being amid a very different atmosphere in Washington than during the previous Congress, thanks to the election of President Trump last November.

Lack of cooperation from the Biden Department of Justice and FBI stymied the work of the former Subcommittee on Oversight that ceased operation with the closing of the 118th Congress.

The subcommittee has its work cut out on major Jan. 6 issues, including identifying the pipe bomber, exposing how many federal agents and informants were involved in the crowds at the U.S. Capitol, weaponization of the FBI and DOJ against more than 1,600 now-former Jan. 6 defendants, and public release of the rest of the Capitol Police CCTV security video.

The panel will also be tasked with investigating the killing of protester Ashli Babbitt and the questions that still surround former Capitol Police Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd.

Recently departed Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger apparently ignored November 2024 demands from Loudermilk’s subcommittee for more details on Byrd’s significant disciplinary history and efforts by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to financially help the man who gunned down the 14-year Air Force veteran.

RELATED: Feds settle multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the death of Ashli Babbitt

A densely packed crowd gathers on and around the West Plaza of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Justice Department

Loudermilk revealed in a Nov. 20, 2024, letter that the Office of Professional Responsibility files on three incidents involving Byrd were somehow missing. Manger was asked to explain that, but sources told Blaze News that Manger never responded to Loudermilk’s letter.

Blaze News reached out to USCP for comment. The story will be updated if we receive a response.

Serious questions remain about the DOJ report that cleared Byrd in the Babbitt shooting. The Biden DOJ used the wrong legal standard to justify not pursuing charges of excessive force against the 30-year Capitol Police veteran.

The death of protester Rosanne Boyland has also not been given attention by Congress in its work to date.

There are also many loose ends that were left behind by the Democrat-controlled Jan. 6 Select Committee empaneled by Pelosi in 2022. Witness transcripts, videos, and other materials that should have been preserved by the committee were destroyed. No one has been held to account for the destruction of legislative investigative records.

Loudermilk’s new subcommittee could also examine the apparently perjured testimony given by two former Capitol Police officers in the 2022 trial of the first group of Oath Keepers prosecuted by the Biden regime.

A Blaze News investigation proved that Officer Harry Dunn and Special Agent David Lazarus gave false and conflicting testimony on the witness stand regarding an alleged confrontation between a group of Oath Keepers and Dunn.

Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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