Can you believe this is necessary? That the House Republicans are feared to be such lawless monsters that they would endanger the lives of people who testified truthfully is outrageous — if it weren’t so predictable:
The leaders of the House January 6 select committee investigation have asked the White House to help shield the identities of key witnesses who gave evidence regarding White House officials’ fears that President Trump’s desire to walk to the Capitol with a riotous mob of his supporters indicated his intention to mount a coup against the government he led at the time.
In a letter to Richard Sauber, a White House attorney who serves as special counsel to President Joe Biden, Representatives Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney — the panel’s chair and vice-chair — noted that the committee had reached agreement with the White House Counsel’s Office to obtain testimony from certain White House personnel on the condition that the identities of any such witnesses would remain secret.
Mr Thompson and Ms Cheney said those White House employees had “provided very important information for the Committee’s investigation” and have had their identities shielded, but warned that the dissolution of the select committee at the conclusion of the 117th Congress means the panel’s former members “will no longer exercise control over this material, and thus cannot ensure enforcement of the commitment to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the witnesses”.
“Pursuant to long-standing House rules, the official records of the Committee will be archived and pass into the control of the National Archives,” they said, adding that they share an unnamed official’s concern for “the safety, security, and reputations” of the witnesses.
If the identities of witnesses who cooperated with the panel are leaked, it is highly likely that they will be targeted for death threats and harassment by Mr Trump and his allies in the same way other non-political government workers have been targeted after speaking out or acting in a way that put them at odds with Mr Trump.
When then-Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, at the time an active duty US Army officer detailed to the National Security Council, testified against Mr Trump during the inquiry that led to his first of two impeachment trials, the Defence Department made preparations to move him and his family to a secure location due to threats from Mr Trump’s supporters. And when documents relating to the FBI’s 8 August search of Mr Trump’s home were made public in an unredacted form by Mr Trump’s right-wing media allies, two of the agents whose names appeared in the documents immediately began receiving death threats.
Mr Trump’s ex-White House Communications Director, Alyssa Farah Griffin, told the committee that the president “knows” that he is able to spur his followers to threaten the lives of anyone he chooses to target.
“When he attacks me, I do get death threats … very specific, very violent,” she said, adding later that “he doesn’t care” and that “the team around” the ex-president also knows his statements targeting individuals “results in these kind of things”.
[…]
While most of the panel’s records will pass into the hands of the Committee on House Administration at the conclusion of the 117th Congress, Mr Thompson and Ms Cheney informed Mr Sauber that the transcripts of those witnesses’ testimony will be provided to an unnamed official for “appropriate review, timely return, and designation of instructions for proper handling” by the National Archives and Records Administration, which will eventually become the custodian of all select committee records.
They have recommended that the official provide the Archives with “any necessary written guidance regarding the need for limitations on release or other sensitivities”.
The testimony discussed in the article is pretty anodyne stuff — someone testifying that they knew if Trump went to the Capitol that it would change from being a rally/protest into “something else.” But you can bet that if Trump and his minions find out who these people are they will be targeted. That’s just how it works. And it is an outrage.