Kinzinger says Jan. 6 committee’s probe is still “full-steam ahead”

The Jan. 6 House select committee hearings may be over for the summer, but even as the committee works on its interim report on the U.S. Capitol assault, and what led up to it, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of the committee, said the investigation is still going “full-steam ahead,” and the panel continues to uncover new information.

Kinzinger spoke with CBS chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa Thursday about the state of the probe.

Asked whether there was any possibility there are more audio tapes of then-President Donald Trump from the post-election period, Kinzinger responded, “I think it’s quite possible. You know, look, whether it’s that, whether it’s Secret Service, that’s something that we really want to focus on over this summer is – call it the ‘unknown unknowns,’ right? Or the ‘known unknowns.’ What are the things that we don’t necessarily know that are out there?”

In early January 2021, an hour-long recording of a phone call between Trump and Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, became public, in which the defeated president could be heard pressing Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” just enough to overturn Georgia’s election results.

Kinzinger marveled at the fact that “four months ago, I had no idea that the Secret Service erased their text messages,” a revelation that came in the last two weeks.

Secret Service members erased text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, shortly after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general had requested them as part of an investigation into the agency’s response to the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

“I think there’s a lot more information to come, which is why even as we write an interim report – kind of at the beginning of putting this all together – this investigation goes full-steam ahead because there’s so many unanswered questions.”