Pelosi announces formation of a ‘select committee’ to investigate January 6 Capitol riot

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t giving up on her partisan witch hunt to find the “root causes” of the January 6 riot at the Capitol building. She announced on Thursday the formation of a select committee to “establish the truth of that day” that will be heavy on the partisanship and light on the truth.

Indeed, she may deign to include a few Republicans on the select committee.  But make no mistake, this will be a nakedly partisan effort to blame Donald Trump for actions he had no foreknowledge of and did not support.

Pelosi did not say how many members the committee would have or the partisan makeup of the panel. But the committee will have subpoena powers and nearly unlimited scope.

The select committee — which will require a majority vote in the Democratic-led House to be formed — is a signal that Pelosi wants to centralize those investigations in one body that will be equipped with subpoena power and tasked with publishing its findings.

But a select committee is all but guaranteed to be a more partisan forum than an independent commission would have been — meaning the parties may come no closer to a consensus about why Jan. 6 happened and who is to blame for it at the end of the probe than they are at the present moment.