Former Attorney General William Barr has spoken with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the panel's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said on Sunday.
During an appearance on CBS's Face the Nation, Thompson said the committee has had "conversations" with Barr and several "Department of Defense individuals." He did not elaborate on what Barr said to the panel.
A committee staffer told The Washington Post that the discussions with Barr have been informal. Barr resigned as attorney general in December 2020, just a few weeks before the Capitol riot. Before submitting his resignation letter, Barr pushed back against Trump's false claims of widespread election fraud, saying the Justice Department did not uncover any evidence of this happening.
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Trump's lawyers attempted to shield hundreds of documents from the Jan. 6 committee, but lost at the Supreme Court last week. Politico reports that one of the documents the lawyers attempted to block was a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines from states. Thompson was asked about the document on Sunday, and whether it will be discussed with Barr.
Thompson replied that while it was a draft and the executive order was never implemented, "we are concerned that our military was part of the big lie on promoting that the election was false. So, if you are using the military to potentially seize voting machines, even though it's a discussion, the public needs to know. We've never had that before."
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