Donald Trump’s had a pretty rough few months: The feds searched his house and won’t give him his sentimental top-secret documents back, and made him look like a messy bitch to boot; he had to testify before a meanie state attorney general for hours on end, just because he kept (allegedly!) cooking his corporate books, which apparently you’re not supposed to do; those bullies up on Capitol Hill got their hands on his tax forms, even though he was totally going to make them public anyway, just like he promised to years and years and years ago. Truly a bummer-summer if there ever was one!
But with September here and autumn just around the corner, things are definitely lookin’ up for ol’ Donald, right? Right???
Not quite. Because while Trump’s summer was full of legal woes and personal embarrassments, the members of the special congressional committee investigating the events leading up to and through the Jan. 6 attempted coup have been quietly plotting their sophomore season opener — an event which, presumably, will once again refocus the nation’s attention on the former president’s efforts to subvert the mechanisms of government.
According to Punchbowl News, committee members are slated to meet next week to discuss next steps ahead of their next public hearing, which could come as soon as Sept. 28.
While the committee itself has largely framed its work as a methodical investigation moving at its own pace based solely on where the facts lead, the rush to resume hearings after the summer hiatus is understandable given the looming midterm elections, and the potential for a Republican-controlled House in the coming months. As it is, the committee faces the impending loss of Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney — the sole Republican participants who have come to define the panel’s work as a bipartisan effort — in the coming term.
As Punchbowl notes, the committee’s (relatively) quiet summer hasn’t meant it’s been totally inoperational; it’s spent $1.6 million in compensation for its more than 50 permanent staffers, and $600,000 on outside consultants in the last quarter alone, on top of tens of thousands in fees for transcription, security services, data mapping, and other investigative necessities. So, despite no real public-facing movement from the group, it’s clear that the committee is keeping its irons hot ahead of this fall’s return to primetime.
All told, this bodes fairly ill for Trump, who has spent the better part of the past month in a seemingly losing battle over his right to abscond D.C. with secret national security documents. Now, with the Jan. 6 committee gearing up to shove his alleged seditious conspiracy back into the zeitgeist, Trump will have to contend once more with another serious legal/reputational threat — all as his political clout wanes ahead of a potential third presidential run. What a shame. Couldn’t happen to a worthier fella.
