The Jan. 6 select committee has asked conservative pot-stirrer and former House speaker Newt Gingrich to voluntarily testify about his involvement in the Capitol riot and the events surrounding it.
According to a letter the committee sent Thursday, Gingrich gave Donald Trump administration insiders Jared Kushner and Jason Miller “detailed input” on TV ads designed to cast doubt on the 2020 election.
The letter also suggests that Gingrich was involved in the plan to have alternate pro-Trump electors interfere with the Electoral College vote.
In the letter, Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) noted that Gingrich sent an email to Kushner, Miller and another Trump aide about an advertisement designed to gin up anger over debunked claims of voter fraud.
“The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before,” Gingrich wrote in an email dated Dec. 8, 2020, according to the committee. “... If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger[,] they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors.”
The committee asked Gingrich to testify during the week of Sept. 19 and requested that he preserve any and all communications with the White House, the Trump legal team and other Jan. 6 figures.
Gingrich did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s request for comment. However, speaking to CBS News reporter Robert Costa, he called the investigation into the events of Jan. 6 “a ‘Stalinist show trial’” and said he plans to have his attorney talk with the committee about its request.
“It tells you everything you need to know about them that I’m hearing this from you right now. Publicity stunt,” Gingrich told Costa. “I have no idea what this is about.”
But when Costa asked Gingrich if he planned to cooperate with the committee’s request, the conservative took a slightly less bombastic tone, saying that he would “follow the advice of counsel.”
You can read the committee’s letter to Gingrich below.