Newt Gingrich believes that Committee 1/6 members can be jailed by House Republicans, but the House of Representatives does not have the power to jail people.
Gingrich said in Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures:
What you need to understand is that on January 4th next year you will have a Republican majority in the House of Representatives and a Republican majority in the Senate. And all these people who have been so tough, so mean, and so mean, they’re going to get subpoenas for every document, every conversation, every tweet, every email… I think when you have a Republican convention, it’s all going to collapse, and the wolves will find out that they are sheep now, and they are the ones who actually, I think, face real jail risk for the kind of laws they break.
There is only one problem with Gingrich’s theory. House Republicans can’t put anyone in jail. As the nation learned from Committee 1/6, Special Committees can only make criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
Attorney General Garland will throw any criminal referrals from 1/6 committee members by a potential future House majority straight into the nearest dumpster.
Gingrich’s testimony sounds harsh, but his remarks were a fantasy of the man who impeached Bill Clinton and cost his party the house.
Republicans will be out for revenge if they retake the House of Representatives, but they won’t be able to put anyone in jail, as Newt Gingrich appears to have learned nothing from setting fire to his own career in the 1990s
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and professional memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association
