Scott Perry: Republican House member says no to Jan 6 Committee request for testimony and documents

‘I decline this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical Left’, said GOP lawmaker

(Getty Images)

Republican Rep Scott Perry of Pennsylvania has said he will refuse to provide testimony and documents to the select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riot.

The House select committee on Monday requested that Mr Perry provide documents relating to a scheme to use the Department of Justice to install former president Donald Trump in for a second term.

But Mr Perry, who is the incoming chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, rejected the request on Tuesday.

“I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives,” he tweeted. “I decline this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical Left who desperately seek distraction from their abject failures of crushing inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, and the horrendous crisis they created at our border.”

Mr Perry is the first sitting lawmaker asked to provide documents on the riot by supporters of the former president in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In his letter to Mr Perry, committee chairman Bennie Thompson said he had “tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members” but that the committee “have a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.”

The request came a week after the House voted to hold former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former member of the Freedom Caucus himself, in contempt of Congress. The committee said that multiple House members exchanged messages with Mr Meadows in the days leading up to the insurrection.