Good explanation for the Jan6th Committee to hold off on sharing with the DOJ

[Pluvious]

( six tweet thread )

Link to tweet

[usonian]

1. For the twitter-challenged


A lot of anger and indignation that the Jan 6 Committee isn’t turning over all their files right away to the DoJ. The frustration at the pace is understandable, but a few thoughts as to why it’s not so cut and dried: (Thread) /1

Lawyers are very protective of their work product and want to make sure it’s not waived by disclosure to a third party. If they give it to the DoJ they might be found to have waived work product privileges over it. That’s a bit deal, as John Eastman just found out. /2


Also, as soon as it’s turned over to the DoJ, the Department has an obligation to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence, meaning anything that could support any defense or lessens the degree of guilt. That disclosure has to come early enough for a robust defense. /3


That might mean that in certain instances, perhaps in other cases in which the Committee is still actively investigating or interviewing witnesses, the defendants and their counsel would have the testimony and know what other people have said. That could easily leak out. /4


Going through all transcripts to make sure their release wouldn’t tip off witnesses who have yet to come forward or appear for testimony is a time consuming and arduous task. The Committee has a ton or work left to do, and this process would eat up many resources. /5


In sum, there are many good reasons not to rush to release transcripts just because the DoJ requests them. I know this won’t satisfy a lot of folks, but to claim there’s no basis for the Committee’s caution is wrong and unfair. /end

[brush]

2. Thank you. And I know the DOJ is busy rounding up and charging...

the hundreds of apprehended J6 magats, seems they would've set aside resources to do their own investigations parallel to the committee's. That sure seems like what they're there for...the top law enforcement agency in the nation IMO should've certainly been investigating an attempted, and televised, coup of the US government.

Remember the old song by Gil Scott Heron, "The Revolution Will Not be Televised"? Well this insurrection was and the DOJ should've been all over investigating it too.

[FakeNoose]

3. The Select Committee has already done a mountain of work

... and there's way more material than what they have discussed and provided in the 2-hour sessions. I'm sure it's the stuff that doesn't get shown during the televised hearings - the testimony, documents, videos, emails, etc. - that DoJ would love to see.

For example, Ivanka Trump testified for something like 9 hours to the select committee, but less than one minute of that was shown in the first televised hearing. Multiply that times every J6 witness, and it's a LOT of work to go through and check out. The committee needs to hold onto it for now because there's still a lot to cover.

[NCLefty]

4. I just figured they had a (good?) reason for not doing it sooner.

[electric_blue68]

5. Interesting observations.