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Attorney Neal Katyal, who previously served as principal deputy solicitor general and acting solicitor general for the Justice Department, said that former President Donald Trump, Representative Jim Jordan and Trump allies are utilizing "bad mob tactics" in response to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack against the U.S. Capitol.
Hundreds of Trump supporters assaulted the federal legislative building 13 months ago in an apparent effort to disrupt the formal certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. That riot followed Trump repeatedly claiming that the 2020 election had been "stolen" and urging his supporters to walk to the Capitol and "fight like hell."
The House select committee has been investigating the events of January 6, issuing subpoenas and asking those with information to testify. But Trump and many of his allies have attempted to stonewall the committee and prevent it from uncovering all the facts.
During a Sunday interview with MSNBC, Katyal, a Democrat who served under former President Barack Obama, gave an assessment on the select committee's work. The former deputy solicitor general was asked whether Trump's former attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani would provide any answers to the committee.
"I don't think we'll get really any real answers from them," the lawyer responded. He then compared Trump and his allies' responses to the investigation to the mob.
"That's what these folks are looking like—like a mob. The only difference, really, between the mob and Trump is that the mob has morals," he said. "I think the facts the committee is investigating have already started to speak for themselves."
Katyal pointed out that the committee has records, as first reported by CNN, showing that Trump spoke with Jordan, an Ohio Republican, for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6 before the Capitol attack. "Of course Trump spoke to Jim Jordan that day, nobody is surprised about that," he said.
"I guess we shouldn't also be surprised that Jim Jordan is evidently now saying he, quote, forgot what they talked about on January 6," the former Justice Department official continued. "I'm sorry, the president of the United States calls you on one of the most significant days in American history and you just forgot what was said? It's like mob tactics, but bad mob tactics," Katyal said.
CNN first reported on Friday that the House select committee had phone records showing that Jordan and Trump spoke for approximately 10 minutes on the morning of the Capitol assault. That revelation came despite Jordan previously saying he believed that he and the former president spoke after the riot occurred, and also that he was not sure when they spoke.
Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, tweeted on Friday afternoon, sharing a link to the CNN report:
".@Jim_Jordan, this report directly contradicts what you said before the Rules Committee. What are you trying to hide? It's past time for you to go before the @January6thCmte and speak honestly about what happened that awful day,"
A spokesperson for Jordan dismissed McGovern's assessment, however.
"McGovern's statement is straight from the Select Committee's dirty playbook of leaking and misleading information, because Mr. Jordan told McGovern's committee that he may have spoken to President Trump on the morning of January 6th but didn't remember for sure," Jordan's communications director Russell Dye told Newsweek on Saturday.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the House select committee and urged his allies not to cooperate with investigators' demands. The former president's attorneys attempted to block the House committee from obtaining hundreds of pages of Trump administration documents, claiming they were protected by executive privilege. That argument was dismissed by federal courts, and many of the documents were handed over to the committee in January, following a decision by the Supreme Court.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's press office for comment.
About the writer
Jason Lemon is a Senior Politics Editor at Newsweek based in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to taking on the editor role, Jason's reporting focused ... Read more