The committee on Jan. 6 is seeking an interview with GOP Rep. Jim Jordan

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WASHINGTON (AP)-A House panel investigating the insurgency in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 requested an interview and information from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Wednesday, for the second time this week the committee sought to publicly interview a sitting member of Congress.

In a letter to Jordan, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel wanted the legislator to provide information for its investigation about his interactions with former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6 and Trump’s efforts to challenge the outcome. of the 2020 election.

“We understand that you had at least one and possibly multiple communications with President Trump on January 6th,” the letter read. “We want to discuss every such communication with you in detail.”

The request is the second of a nine -member panel this week and launches a new round for lawmakers on the committee, who have so far resisted chasing one of their own as they investigate the insurgency of supporters and his efforts to overthrow the election. .

Jordan remains one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress and a staunch supporter of the former president’s false statements about voter fraud. The most recent lawmaker voiced those claims again during a hearing in October on a motion to contempt former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena.

At that same hearing, Jordan again admitted that he spoke to Trump on the day of the attack.

“Of course, I talked to the president,” Jordan told members of the Rules Committee, in response to a question from the panel chairman, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “I talked to him that day. I became clear about that. I can’t remember how many times, but it’s not about me. I know you want to do that. “

A request for comment from Jordan’s office was not immediately returned.

The panel is also seeking information about Jordan’s meeting with Trump and members of his administration in November and December 2020, and in early January 2021, “about strategies for reversing the 2020 election results. ” The letter goes on to say that the committee is also interested in any discussions Jordan may have had at the time about the possibility of presidential pardons for people involved in any aspect of the attack on the Capitol or the planning for in the two rallies that took place that day.

Thompson wrote that Jordan had already publicly expressed a willingness to cooperate with the panel’s efforts to get answers about Jan. 6, citing the lawmaker’s quote from the October hearing: “I said that, I don’t have to I’ve been straightforward all the time. “

On Monday, the committee sent a similar request to Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, whom the panel believes has played a “key role” in efforts to install former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general in late 2020.

Perry denied the committee’s request Tuesday, calling the committee and its investigation “illegitimate.”

In response, Tim Mulvey, a committee spokesman, said that while the panel prefers to gather evidence from members “working together,” it will pursue such information “using other tools” as needed.

The panel has already interviewed about 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the January 6 attack and the events leading up to it.

Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to withdraw the number on congressional certification on Jan. 6. Officials of elections across the country, including the courts, have repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.

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