By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol on Thursday said it had asked former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich to provide information related to its probe.
The committee said it obtained evidence demonstrating Gingrich had had a role in spreading misinformation about the 2020 presidential election.
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Gingrich via his Virginia-based company’s website.
In a letter to Gingrich, Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic-led Select Committee’s chairman, said information the panel had obtained included email messages Gingrich exchanged with senior advisers to former President Donald Trump in which he provided “detailed input” into television advertisements.
“These advertising efforts were not designed to encourage voting for a particular candidate. Instead, these efforts attempted to cast doubt on the outcome of the election after voting had already taken place,” Thompson said in the letter.
It said Gingrich pushed messages designed to incite anger among voters.
The committee said it would like to conduct a voluntary, transcribed interview with Gingrich during the week of Sept. 19.
On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of supporters of Trump, a Republican, stormed the Capitol building, encouraged by the then-president in a speech outside the White House to protest formal congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.
The committee is trying to establish what Trump did while thousands of his supporters attacked police, vandalized the Capitol and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle in WashingtonEditing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)
