Raskin says January 6 committee will release its report ‘by the end of the year’

By Daniella Diaz and Devan Cole, CNN

A Democratic member of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol said Sunday that he expects the panel’s final report to come out “by the end of the year.”

“Well, certainly by the end of the year, because we’re like Cinderella at midnight,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin told “Face the Nation” on CBS. “Our license runs out at the end of the year, but under House Resolution 503, that’s a significant part of our responsibility, to report to the American people about how to prevent coups, insurrections, political violence and attacks on our democratic process going forward.”

CNN reported in July that sources have said the bipartisan committee has already started writing its report, but there is still much debate over which direction it should go. A key question the panel will have to answer is whether the report should include a criminal referral of former President Donald Trump.

Most select committee members feel that the public hearings held earlier this year have clearly laid out that Trump committed a crime for his role leading up to and on January 6 but believe it is up to the Department of Justice to pursue further.

As the committee prepares for the end-of-year sprint, Raskin said Sunday that he hopes its members are able to hear testimony from several key people, including former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas.

“I would say (Thomas) has a relevant testimony to render, and she should come forward and give it. I don’t want to overstate her role,” he said. “We’ve talked to more than 1,000 people, but we’d like to hear from Gingrich and we’d like to hear from her, too.”

The committee wants to learn more about communications Gingrich had with senior advisers in the Trump White House about television advertisements that relied on false claims about the election.

And January 6 panelists have also been pushing for testimony from Thomas, whose support of the efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat have come under scrutiny given her husband’s participation in a case that was before the US Supreme Court concerning the select committee investigation. One of her lawyers said in a June letter to the panel that he “does not believe there is currently a sufficient basis to speak with” the conservative activist.

Meanwhile, Raskin said he hopes the committee receives voluntary testimony from former Vice President Mike Pence, whose potential cooperation with the lawmakers would make him the investigation’s most high-profile witness and could further expose Trump’s scheme to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“I think he has a lot of relevant evidence, and I would hope he would come forward and testify about what happened,” Raskin said. “We’re trying to get everybody to come forward voluntarily. … I would assume he’s going to come forward and testify voluntarily.”

Pence said last month that he would give “due consideration” to any formal invitation to testify before the committee, while hinting at potential executive privilege issues. A person with knowledge of Pence’s thinking cautioned against reading too much into his remarks.

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CNN’s Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen, Sara Murray and Athena Jones contributed to this report.