Jan. 6 committee asks Republican lawmaker for information

(Image credit: Ting Shen-Pool/Getty Images)

For the first time, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is requesting information from a seated lawmaker.

On Monday, the committee's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), sent a letter to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), saying the panel received "evidence from multiple witnesses" showing Perry had "an important role" in the efforts to install Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. Clark, a senior official in former President Donald Trump's Justice Department, was reportedly open to pursuing and acting on Trump's baseless claims of election fraud.

In his letter, Thompson also told Perry that the committee has information indicating he communicated "at various relevant times with the White House and others involved in other relevant topics, including regarding allegations that the Dominion voting machines had been corrupted." Thompson said he'd like Perry to meet with the committee between now and Jan. 4. Perry's office did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.