Pelosi creates panel to ‘seek the truth’ on Capitol attack

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Nancy Pelosi says she’s creating a special panel to investigate the attack at the Capitol. Alex Brandon/AP

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By Mary Clare Jalonick Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official Thursday that she is creating a special committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol, saying it is “imperative that we seek the truth.”

The new committee comes after Republican senators blocked legislation that would have set up a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack. A violent mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump overran the police on Jan. 6, broke into the building and hunted for lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence as they tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

The House passed the bill to form a commission last month, and Pelosi, D-Calif., said it was her preference to have an independent panel lead the inquiry. But she said Congress could not wait any longer to begin a deeper look at the insurrection.

“Jan. 6 was a day of darkness for our country,” Pelosi said, and the “terror and trauma” to members and staff who were there is something she cannot forgive. She said there is no fixed timeline for the committee, which will investigate and report on the facts and causes of the attack and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again.

She did not say who will lead or serve on the committee.

Pelosi’s official announcement, two days after she signaled to colleagues that she would create the committee, means Democrats will lead what probably will be the most comprehensive look at the siege. More than three dozen Republicans in the House and seven Republicans in the Senate said they wanted to avoid a partisan investigation and supported the legislation to form a commission, which would have been modeled after a similar panel that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But those numbers were not strong enough to overcome GOP opposition in the Senate, where support from 10 Republicans is needed to pass most bills if all Democrats vote yes.

Pelosi says that the select committee could be complementary to an independent panel and that she is “hopeful there could be a commission at some point.”