Rep. Scott Perry Rejects Invitation to Testify at ‘Illegitimate’ January 6 Committee

Scott Perry (Kevin Dietsch / Getty)
Kevin Dietsch / Getty
Joel B. Pollak

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) has rejected an invitation by the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack to testify, calling the committee “illegitimate” and “not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives.”

The January 6 committee sent Perry a letter on Monday, asking for his voluntary cooperation, without ruling out a future subpoena. Perry is the first member of the House to be asked to testify at the committee’s investigation into the Capitol riot.

In a response that was shared on Twitter on Tuesday by the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Perry rejected the letter:

Perry’s claim that the committee is “illegitimate” likely refers to the fact that it has departed from its own enabling resolution, which requires that it have 13 members, with five from the opposition, the latter to be appointed in consultation with the House Minority Leader. Today, the committee has nine members — seven Democrats, two Republicans — after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected the Republicans nominated by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

The committee has issued many subpoenas, some to people with no known link to the riot other than the fact that they worked for or represented then-President Donald Trump in a general capacity, such as press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Former President Trump has asserted that certain materials sought by the committee are covered by executive privilege. Former aide Stephen K. Bannon, arguing that he could not waive the executive privilege on his own, declined to provide those materials to the committee. Subsequently, the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress, and the Department of Justice indicted him — the first such prosecution in decades, even after it declined to charge serious cases of contempt such as that of former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, who had targeted conservative groups before the 2012 election.

Earlier this month, the House also voted to hold former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt. Meadows initially cooperated with the committee, but pushed back when the committee sought materials over which Trump had asserted executive privilege, and when it tried to force his cell phone carrier to release extensive personal phone records.

Prior to the contempt vote, Meadows sued the committee, repeating some of the arguments Bannon had used but adding that the committee’s subpoenas violated the enabling resolution, which required consultation with the ranking member of the minority party. There is no ranking member, following Pelosi’s refusal to seat the chosen Republican representatives.

If Meadows’s lawsuit in federal court succeeds, it could invalidate most, if not all, of the committee’s subpoenas issued thus far.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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