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Watchdog: Jan. 6 Committee Should Demand Answers From Republican Attorneys General Association
Government watchdog Accountable.US penned a letter asking the select committee to subpoena key members of the Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund to provide public testimony
Accountable.US: “We can’t move forward as a country without accountability for all those who helped incite the deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6th, including several Big Lie-embracing Republican attorneys general that baselessly sued to toss out legitimate election results”
Read the full letter here
Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, government watchdog Accountable.US sent a letter calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Bennie Thompson, and other members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol to call key members of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) to testify regarding their role leading up to the deadly attack, The Hill reported.
The effort follows a letter last week from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse urging the Select Committee to “examine the dark-money organizations and powerful donors who organized and funded efforts to undermine the 2020 election.”
“We can’t move forward as a country without accountability for all those who helped incite the deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6th, including several Big Lie-embracing Republican attorneys general that baselessly sued to toss out legitimate election results,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. “The House Select Committee must demand answers from the Republican attorneys general behind paid calls driving insurrectionists to the Trump rally that preceded the riot — and at least from AG Marshall, who conspicuously refuses to reveal his whereabouts that day. Any attorney general that took steps to undermine democracy after the election violated their oath to protect the Constitution, and none have yet to seriously answer for it.”
In the letter, Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig details RAGA’s long history of undermining our democracy and inciting violence. The day before the insurrection, RAGA’s fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) “: robocalls with a message instructing individuals to march to the Capitol and “call on Congress to stop the steal.” To this day, Alabama Attorney General and RLDF Chair Steve Marshall still maintains that he doesn’t know who authorized and paid for the robocalls, and has failed to clarify his whereabouts leading up to and directly following the insurrection.
Leading up to the attack, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a frivolous lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the results of the election. Despite Paxton’s lack of evidence, 17 other attorneys general supported the case, including RLDF Chair Steve Marshall and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who would later be named RAGA chairman. The lawsuit was tossed out by the Supreme Court for lack of standing. Paxton was also a headlining speaker at the rally that took place before violence erupted at the Capitol and told the crowd “we will not quit fighting.”
As Herrig points out, RAGA is deeply entrenched in dangerous attacks against our democracy, and bears a level of responsibility for the events that took place on January 6th. The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol must call on key RAGA and RLDF members to testify regarding their role in the Capitol attack in front of the committee.
Read the full letter here.
Accountable.US recently launched “Enemies of Progress,” a campaign that seeks to hold conservative attorneys general across the country accountable for using their positions to prevent progress on some of the country’s toughest challenges. Read more about these efforts and the top targets of the campaign here.
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