Kash Patel Says Jan. 6 Committee Buried Key Evidence From His Testimony

Former chief of staff to Defense Department under Trump, Kash Patel In its investigation into the House Jan. 6, Committee’s investigation of the Capitol breach.

Patel stated that the transcript of his deposition was not released by the committee as it was closing its work.

“I gave them the hard truths that they didn’t want the answers to because it didn’t fit their political narrative,” he told The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek on the Jan. 6 Episode of his Kash’s Corner podcast.

The Evidence Must Be Buried

Patel recalled the events of January 6, 2021 and their aftermath. He argued that the committee did not follow its own rules by excluding the exhibits that he and his legal teams had entered into the record during Patel’s deposition.

Patel claimed that nine of those exhibits were included in the key report.pdf) released in November 2021 by the Biden Defense Department (DoD), which concluded that the actions the department took under the Trump administration to prepare for the Jan. 6 protests were “appropriate” And “complied with laws, regulations, and other applicable guidance.”

That report, Patel said, along with his testimony that former President Donald Trump’s authorization of the deployment of 20,000 National Guardsmen to protect the Capitol, contradicted the committee’s conclusions that Trump was responsible for the violence that occurred that day.

Patel also pointed out that they declined additional assistance from federal law enforcement when offered, and both Mayor Muriel Bowser, and the Capitol Police (USCP), declined.

Bowser made it clear that, as of Jan. 5, 2021 she will not request any additional federal law enforcement. Let me know She had posted that statement to her Twitter account.

“To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel, and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] if such plans are underway,” Bowser addressed the letter to Acting Defense secretary Chris Miller, Acting Attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.

Likewise, according to the Capitol Police’s official Jan. 6 timelineThe Pentagon reached out to USCP to confirm that a request for National Guardsmen had been considered. The USCP Deputy chief Gallagher replied the next day that “a request for National Guard support is not forthcoming at this time after consultation with COP [chief of police] Sund.”

According to Patel, both Bowser’s letter and USCP’s timeline were also submitted as exhibits but were not released along with the transcript of his deposition.

Under the House’s rules (pdf) for deposition procedure, “the transcript and any exhibits shall be filed, as shall any video recording, with the clerk of the Committee.”

The committee released exhibits based on other interviews and the supporting material for its investigation. Final reportPatel’s exhibits are not included in the list of exhibits that have been filed with the committee.

“No surprise, the Jan. 6 Unselect Committee broke its rules, broke the House rules, broke its commitment—and not just orally, but in writing to my legal team—by saying the exhibits would be included,” He stated. “They excluded every single exhibit.”

Unanswered questions

Patel also criticised the committee for not investigating important questions and concerns which remain largely unanswered.

His deposition did not focus on Jan. 6, he said, but was about other non-related matters that the committee needed information on.

“That just showed me that all they cared about, this committee, was setting up perjury traps and looking for political ammunition, not the facts,” He stated.

Patel stated that he still has questions about why there is an a. “no-climb” Prior to Jan. 6, no fence was built around Capitol.

Patel recalled how he arrived at the scene on Jan. 6 after protests broke out and found no fence to secure the perimeter.

He noticed that he was required to purchase the fence, and then had it put up by the National Guardsmen later that day. “If we could do it that fast, why wasn’t it done before? What are they going to say, optics? They didn’t have the intelligence? This committee never bothered to examine that question.”

Patel claims that he and other DoD officials offered the removal of the fence following the protests subsided. However, their offers were rejected both by Nancy Pelosi (D.Calif.) as well as the incoming Biden administration.

The fence would remain in place for half a decade, as a reminder of Jan. 6 events to anyone who passed by.

“That’s what I believe that this partisan political charade was about,” Patel stated. “They wanted the optics before Jan. 6 with no security, and they wanted the optics after Jan. 6 with heavy security to show that their political narrative was the one that was right. But when you look at the underlying facts, their narrative is defeated.”

Patel also mentioned Ray Epps’ role in the Capitol protests. He was filmed encouraging them to enter it on Jan. 6.

Epps maintains that he was at the Capitol that day to support Trump, many have come to believe that he was there as a provocateur, potentially on the orders of the FBI.

Noting that the FBI has repeatedly failed to give a straight answer on whether Epps is an operative of theirs or not, Patel said: “Look, as a former federal prosecutor who ran sources and informants, if the answer is, ‘This guy is not on our payroll, and we don’t know him, and he did absolutely nothing for the United States government,’ you come out hard and fast out of your press office and say those things. And those things have never been said by this DOJ or FBI about Ray Epps.”

Patel also pointed to the recent revelation that Pelosi’s office played a key role in planning security for the event and the fact that the FBI withheld a crucial report indicating thousands of protesters could show up at the Capitol as additional mysteries that should be investigated by the Republican-controlled House.

“Look, if the FBI and DOJ are willing to subpoena my records from five years ago, maybe we can get this Congress to actually subpoena some records of consequence to answer some of these questions.”

New Congress

With all of the recent “Twitter Files” disclosures surrounding the FBI’s alleged censorship of U.S. citizens on social media, Patel noted that future congressional investigations should not solely focus on Jan. 6 but span a wide range of activity at the Department of Justice and FBI.

However, as the standoff among House Republicans over the next House speaker has yet to reach a conclusion, it may be some time before any such investigations can take place.

While Patel did not endorse a specific person for the role or have any idea as to how it all would end, he emphasized the importance of selecting a speaker soon.

“The work of the United States Congress does not start until the speaker is elected,” he noted. “That means none of the investigations you and I talked about can start, none of the subpoenas that we want to go out can be sent out… There’s no Congress, as we know it operating. And so that’s the loss.”

The Epoch Times has contacted former Jan. 6 Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, Pelosi, and the attorneys of Ray Epps for comment.

Samantha Flom is a reporter for The Epoch Times covering U.S. politics and news. A graduate of Syracuse University, she has a background in journalism and nonprofit communications.
Contact her at [email protected].

Senior Editor

Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times and host of the show, “American Thought Leaders.” Jan’s career has spanned academia, media, and international human rights work. In 2009 he joined The Epoch Times full time and has served in a variety of roles, including as website chief editor. He is the producer of the award-winning Holocaust documentary film “Finding Manny.”