Trump calls for Jan. 6 committee members to be indicted

"I would have every right to go after them."

(The Hill) - Former President Trump on Thursday fumed over a federal judge ordering his longtime ally Steve Bannon to report to prison, calling for members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot to be indicted.

Trump called it a "Total and Complete American Tragedy" that Bannon and Peter Navarro, another former aide, have been ordered to prison for separately refusing to comply with the congressional investigation led by the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee.

The former president claimed in a Truth Social post that members of the House panel had committed crimes, asserting they "deleted and destroyed all material evidence."

"The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before," Trump posted. "INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR 'FINDINGS!'"

The panel's former chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), has previously pushed back against GOP claims that the committee withheld information.

Trump's post follows several interviews he gave this week in which he suggested it would be fair game for his political opponents to be prosecuted if he wins the White House in November. Trump made the comments on the heels of his own conviction on 34 felony counts in New York for falsifying business records.

The former president has claimed that the Biden White House played a role in his legal battles, though there is no evidence that was the case.

"It has to stop, because, otherwise, we're not going to have a country," Trump said Wednesday on Fox News of prosecutions of political opponents. "Look, when this election is over, based on what they have done, I would have every right to go after them."

The House select committee comprised seven Democrats and two Republicans: former GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), both vocal Trump critics. The panel spent months investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and held public hearings detailing its findings about the riot and Trump's actions on that day and the weeks leading up to it.

The committee ultimately unveiled criminal referrals targeting Trump, and the former president has since been criminally charged in Washington, D.C., over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, among other cases.

A federal judge Thursday ordered Bannon, who served as a top Trump adviser on the 2016 campaign and briefly in the White House, to begin his four-month prison sentence in July as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction. 

Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, is currently serving his four-month sentence on contempt charges. He had similarly mounted last-ditch efforts to avoid prison, including unsuccessfully seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court.