Pelosi says she has not provided any information to Jan. 6 panel

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she has not provided any information to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Asked during her weekly press conference if she has provided any testimony or documents to the investigative panel, Pelosi said “no,” adding, “I keep as far away from the committee as possible.”

“If they asked me I would, but I don’t — I was on the podium and then I was swept away,” she said.

Pelosi was escorted off the House floor and evacuated from the Capitol complex to an undisclosed off-site location during the riot because of the threat against her.

Pressed on if she expects to be asked about various matters including evacuation procedures, Pelosi said, “I have no idea.”

She said she remains aware of the committee’s work through what is available publicly.

“I know about what they do the way you do, in the public domain. We authorized them, we give them the resources they need to do what they do, but that is the work of the committee,” she said. “It has nothing to do with me.”

News that the Jan. 6 committee has not asked Pelosi for information may fuel frustration among Republicans, some of whom have accused the Speaker of doing too little to bolster security in the lead up to the attack.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in July said officers were “put into a vulnerable and impossible position” on Jan. 6 “because the leadership at the top failed.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that month said Pelosi failed to approve the activation of the National Guard on Jan. 6, though there is no evidence to support that. He also suggested that Democrats were trying to avoid answering questions about security that day by refusing to seat himself and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on the select committee.

McCarthy had recommended five GOP lawmakers to sit on the Jan. 6 select committee, but Pelosi rejected two of them — Jordan and Banks — because of “the impact their appointments may have on the integrity of the investigation.”

Both lawmakers are close allies of former President Trump and voted against the official counting of the Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential election.

McCarthy ultimately pulled his five appointments, and many Republicans have since knocked the panel as partisan — despite the fact that GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who both voted to impeach Trump over his role in the riot, sit on the committee.

“Why don’t they want to answer the fundamental question, which is why wasn’t there a better security posture on that day?” Jordan asked in July.

Pelosi’s office, however, pushed back on claims that she did not do enough to beef up security, noting in a statement that the Capitol Police Board oversees everyday decisions regarding Capitol security, not congressional leaders. Her office also said that the Speaker never turned down a request to activate the National Guard. 

Congressional investigators on the panel have spoken with more than 300 people and issued 79 subpoenas thus far in their work for the committee.

Updated at 4:55 p.m.