Jan. 6 committee has questions for US Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona

PHOENIX – The congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol wants Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona to explain himself.

The House Jan. 6 committee on Monday sent letters to Biggs and two other Republicans, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, requesting meetings next week.

“The Select Committee has learned that several of our colleagues have information relevant to our investigation into the facts, circumstances, and causes of Jan. 6,” Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a joint statement.

“As we work to provide answers to the American people about that day, we consider it a patriotic duty for all witnesses to cooperate. We urge our colleagues to join the hundreds of individuals who have shared information with the Select Committee as we work to get to the bottom of what happened on Jan. 6.”

Biggs issued a statement on Monday afternoon in which he declined the invitation while comparing the committee’s investigation to the Salem witch trials.

“The committee has been a sham since its origins,” he said. “Its entire purpose is to destroy President Trump and his supporters, intimidate members of Congress, and distract Americans from real issues that are destroying this country.”

In the letter to Biggs, the committee said it wants to know about his involvement in planning the protest that lead to the Jan. 6 violence and his connection to Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander.

The letter also references the third-term East Valley congressman’s involvement in efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s election loss.

In an interview last week, Biggs didn’t deny his public efforts to challenge the election results but called the recent reports about his deep involvement untrue. “I’ve seen my name. There were three articles today, and they were filled with untruths,” he told The Associated Press.

Congress was in the process of officially certifying President Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters overwhelmed security and broke into the Capitol, temporarily halting the proceedings.

The panel also said it has “recent information from former White House personnel” that identified an effort by certain House GOP lawmakers to seek a presidential pardon for activities related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. “Your name was identified as a potential participant in that effort,” the committee wrote to Biggs.

Since launching its investigation last summer, the Jan. 6 panel has been slowly gaining new details about what lawmakers said and did in the weeks before the insurrection. Members have already asked three GOP lawmakers — Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — to testify voluntarily. All have refused.

So far, the Jan. 6 committee has refrained from issuing subpoenas to lawmakers, fearing the repercussions of such an extraordinary step. But in recent days, Thompson and other committee members have hinted that subpoenaing their colleagues may not be completely off the table.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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