Although legislation creating a commission to investigate what happened on Jan. 6 has stalled in the U.S. Senate, congressional committees are moving ahead with their own probes of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

One of those committees is headed by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat representing Manhattan and parts of Queens and Brooklyn.

What You Need To Know

  • The House Oversight Committee, led by New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, is moving forward with its investigation after an attempt to create an independent commission to review the events of Jan. 6 failed in the Senate  

  • The Committee this week released a trove of documents, including emails in which Donald Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows repeatedly urged top leaders at the U.S. Department of Justice to look into unfounded conspiracies about the November election

  • Republicans charge that Maloney's current Oversight Committee investigation is partisan; Maloney counters that it is important to get to the bottom of what happened 

Maloney chairs the House Oversight Committee. As part of the investigation, the committee is seeking interviews with key Trump-era officials and requesting documents.

This week, the committee released a trove of those documents, which Maloney said revealed “a brazen attempt to corrupt the Department of Justice.”

Included were emails in which Donald Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows repeatedly urged top leaders at the U.S. Department of Justice to look into unfounded conspiracies about the November election.

At one point, the then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen forwarded one of those emails to a colleague, writing, “Can you believe this? I am not going to respond.”

Maloney says other documents reviewed by committee Democrats show that on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police and city officials asked for support from the National Guard at least 12 times.

“The National Guard did not arrive until 5:20 p.m., more than four hours after the Capitol perimeter was breached. This is a shocking failure,” Maloney said at a committee hearing this week.

Maloney’s committee, like others on Capitol Hill, is moving forward with its investigation after an attempt to create an independent commission to review the events of Jan. 6 failed in the Senate. Whether that effort can be revived remains unclear.

Maloney told Spectrum News NY1 that she believes the best fallback plan is to set up a House select committee to review the attack.

Republicans charge that Maloney's current Oversight Committee investigation is partisan. She counters that it is important to get to the bottom of what happened.

“It was not a normal day,” she said. “It was not a tourist visit to the Capitol. It was an armed riot at the Capitol.”