- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich lambasted Attorney General Merrick Garland and the committee investigating January 6.
- Gingrich said the select committee is "basically a lynch mob" that could go to jail if the GOP regains power.
- Gingrich, a Republican, served as speaker from 1995 to 1999 and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2012.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Merrick Garland and members of the US House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol could face jail time if Republicans gained power.
Gingrich, a Republican and Fox News contributor, made the comments during an appearance on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo."
"You have both with the Attorney General Garland and with this Select Committee of January 6th, people who have run amok," said Gingrich, who served as speaker from 1995 to 1999 and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2012.
"They are breaking the rules. They are going after people in a way which is reminiscent of the British monarchy using closed-door systems that we outlawed deliberately because we had seen it. We knew what it was like. They are running over peoples' civil liberties," he added.
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot has subpoenaed dozens of people close to former President Donald Trump, including Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell. Last week, the committee asked Ivanka Trump for her voluntary cooperation with its probe.
The committee is "literally just running over the law" and "pursuing innocent people," Gingrich said, claiming the committee is "basically a lynch mob" and that Garland is "misusing the FBI."
"What they need to understand is on January 4 next year, you're going to have a Republican majority in the House, and a Republican majority in the Senate," Gingrich predicted Sunday, adding "all these people who have been so tough and so mean and so nasty are gonna be delivered subpoenas for every document, every conversation, every tweet, every email."
—Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 23, 2022
In his remarks on the anniversary of the attack on the Capitol, Garland said the Justice Department remained "committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law."
Some 753 people have been charged with crimes in connection to the Capitol insurrection, and 175 rioters have pleaded guilty.
"I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down, and the wolves are going to find out that they're now sheep," Gingrich said. "And they're the ones who are, in fact, going to, I think, face a real risk of jail for the kind of laws they're breaking."