Jan. 6 panel asks former Speaker Gingrich for information

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks before former President Donald Trump at an America First Policy Institute agenda summit at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is seeking information from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about his communications with senior advisers to then-President Donald Trump in the days leading up to the 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote in a letter sent to Gingrich on Thursday that the panel has obtained emails Gingrich exchanged with Trump’s associates about television advertisements that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election” and were designed to cast doubt on the voting after it had already taken place.

Thompson wrote that Gingrich also appeared to be involved in Trump’s scheme to appoint fake electors and emailed Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, about those efforts on the evening of Jan. 6, after Trump supporters had attacked the Capitol.