WASHINGTON >> The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is rejecting a request from the Justice Department for access to the committee’s interviews, for now.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s chairman, said Tuesdaythe Justice Department had made the request as part of its ongoing criminal investigation into the attack. But he said it was “premature” for the committee to share its work at this point because the panel’s probe is ongoing.

The Justice Department’s request comes as prosecutors have been issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews with people who had been involved in planning events leading up to the attack on the Capitol last year. The request to the House panel — which has conducted more than 1,000 interviews so far — exemplifies the breadth of the Justice investigation into one of the largest attacks on democracy in American history.

The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland have faced mounting pressure to prosecute former President Donald Trump since the Jan. 6 House committee laid out an argument for what its members believe could be a viable criminal case against the former president.

The Justice investigation — the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history — has largely focused on prosecuting those who stormed the Capitol, pushing past and beating overwhelmed police officers until they were bloodied and bruised, in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential win.