News: House Democrats are eyeing a number of former federal prosecutors and experienced lawyers for the newly created task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
While no decisions have been made — and trust us, we’ve been told that several times — senior members of the House Democratic leadership are considering the following lawmakers for the high-profile assignment:
– Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), a lawyer and former executive director of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, was elected to the House in 2018. Dean is seen as a lock for the panel. Fellow Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, has also been mentioned as a potential pick.
– Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) gained a national profile as lead counsel during Trump’s first impeachment. Goldman was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He’s a graduate of Stanford Law School. Goldman is seen as a strong candidate for the panel.
– Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) is a member of the Homeland Security Committee. He visited Butler, Pa., earlier this week with other committee members to observe the Trump rally site where the July 13 shooting occurred.
– Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) is a Harvard Law School graduate. Ivey served as chief counsel to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, as well as being an assistant U.S. attorney. Ivey was twice elected as state’s attorney for Prince George’s County before winning a House seat in 2022.
– Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), an attorney, was one of the House managers for Trump’s second impeachment trial. The Army veteran worked in private legal practice after attending law school at the University of Denver.
– Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), a lawyer who graduated from Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York, has been in the House for a decade. She’s also quite close with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
– Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) is a veteran lawmaker who has been in the House for 21 years. She worked in labor law after law school at UCLA.
Democrats have six seats on the panel.
Republicans: On the GOP side, it seems extremely likely that the panel will be led by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) despite the fact that he’s not a lawyer. The shooting happened in Kelly’s district, and he sponsored the resolution creating the task force. Plus, Kelly is a big Trump booster.
– Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) is another likely pick for the commission. She’s a former federal prosecutor and serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. Lee was passed over for one of the open spots on the House Intelligence Committee, so this could be a way for Johnson to smooth things over with her.
– GOP leadership is also interested in tapping Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) for the panel. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee and is also a House Freedom Caucus member, which will want to have some representation on the panel. Cline is seen as an even-keeled and serious legislator.
– Another name that keeps coming up is Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, though it’s unclear if he’d be willing to serve on the task force if not asked to lead it.
Johnson will get seven seats on the panel. He’ll likely want to fill it with some House Oversight Committee members as well.
Timing: Johnson initially planned to unveil his selections on Thursday. But we’re told he wanted to announce the panel’s roster in conjunction with Jeffries, who wasn’t quite ready. It’s clear both leaders are intent on putting on a united front here.
The panel will have less than five months to sort through mounds of evidence and produce a final report by Dec. 13. Already, a number of whistleblowers have started coming forward to House committees with information.
The House Homeland Security Committee has subpoenaed hundreds of pages of documents from DHS. Those documents are due by today.
Staff: The task force will also need to staff up quickly, since they’ll be responsible for a lion’s share of the behind-the-scenes work. It seems likely that some staffers from the relevant committees will be detailed to work on the commission as it takes the reins of the high-profile investigation. They’ll also likely bring in an outside law firm to help with the probe.
Both the speaker’s office and the minority leader’s office get to designate a leadership staffer for the panel. We expect Cassie Fields, chief oversight counsel for Jeffries, to play a prominent role. Fields, a Yale Law School graduate, has been Jeffries’ chief liaison for the various investigative committees this Congress.
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