Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, revealed on Sunday that the 9-member congressional panel has held several conversations with former US Attorney General Bill Barr, and a number of Pentagon officials.
"To be honest with you, we've had conversations with the former attorney general already," Thompson told CBS' "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan, referring to Barr. "We have talked to Department of Defense individuals. We are concerned that our military was part of this big lie on promoting that the election was false."
The panel intends to hold additional talks with Barr regarding reports about a draft executive order that would have called on US National Guard troops to seize voting machines in several battleground states, including Michigan.
If issued, the order would have granted the US Defense Secretary the authority to "seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under" US election records laws.
"If you are using the military to potentially seize voting machines, even though it's a discussion, the public needs to know," said Thompson.
The draft also authorized "the appointment of a Special Counsel to oversee this operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected and provided all resources necessary to carry out [the] duties consistent with federal laws and the Constitution."
The directive was said to have been drafted by an unidentified source and was not signed by Trump.
The public release of the draft came alongside a Select Committee statement confirming that the 9-member panel received the last of a number of documents that had been previously obscured.
According to Thompson, the panel is casting a wide net in an attempt to get "all the facts and circumstances" surrounding the deadly January 6, 2020, storming of the US Capitol building.
Trump ally and lawyer Rudy Giuliani "is clearly" a key player in the probe, Thompson said. Earlier this week, the panel issued a subpoena demanding Giuliani hand over relevant documents and appear for a deposition on February 8.
Ivanka Trump, the former president's eldest daughter and adviser, has also been asked to voluntarily cooperate with the investigation.
"A number of items attributed to what she's been saying and so we asked her to come in voluntarily and give us the benefit of what she knows," he said, highlighting a February 3 deadline for Ivanka Trump's interview.
Trump and several other Republican leaders have labeled the House Select Committee's investigation as unconstitutional, political, and a personal attack.
"People are entitled to Freedom of Speech, and perhaps there has been no time in our Country’s history where Freedom of Speech has been so totally violated," asserted the former US president, who has consistently repeated his baseless claims of election fraud. "They don’t want to talk about election results because they know they can’t win."
Public hearings are scheduled for the spring.