Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW: The midterm clock is ticking on the January 6th investigators, and the lawmakers charged with digging in know it. "We have to hustle," a top committee Democrat told @thisisinsider's @cryanbarber ($) businessinsider.com/donald-trump-j… via @businessinsider

Ryan's lede: Nine months and hundreds of federal prosecutions later, US House lawmakers — mostly Democrats — are still hunting for answers about the January 6 attack on the Capitol. And they're targeting former President Donald Trump's inner circle.

They've fired off subpoenas & hired seasoned investigators. It's a hard-charging approach that's also politically pragmatic: The investigation, led by Democrats, precedes 2022 midterm elections that could hand the House back to the GOP& effectively torpedo the divisive inquiry.

"We want to tell the full and complete story. And in order to get there in the timeline that we have, we have to hustle. We gotta work," Rep. Pete Aguilar, a top House Democrat and member of the committee, told Insider.

The House committee is approaching its inquiry not just aggressively but expansively. Beyond examining the insurrection, it's investigating the causes — namely misinformation that primed Trump supporters to deny the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Biden appears on board. He's said he'll waive executive privilege on a case-by-case basis for Trump-era records & info the White House might otherwise withhold from investigators. Trump has threatened to challenge waivers & seek to assert privilege but has not taken that step.

Very important caveat that can't be repeated enough: The Jan 6 committee's goal is not to prosecute Trump or his close associates. The panel simply doesn't have the power to do so.

BUT the committee could unearth evidence that the Justice Department or other law-enforcement agencies might find useful in investigations and prosecutions of people linked to the Capitol breach. The findings could also open Trump and his associates up to further civil lawsuits.

Already, Trump, Giuliani, and others who spoke at the rally before the attack are facing civil lawsuits accusing them of inciting the mob that overtook the Capitol.

Sen. Richard Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the January 6 committee had "gone after some pretty serious individuals" with its initial subpoenas and that former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark "may be on the second list."

Clark, the ex-acting DOJ civil division head, is said to have plotted w/ Trump to subvert the 2020 election results. He's lawyered up in the face of congressional scrutiny, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Clark hired Robert Driscoll, a well-known Washington defense lawyer who represented Mick Mulvaney, a former acting White House chief of staff, in Trump's first impeachment and the Russian agent Maria Butina in her criminal prosecution.

The Trump-era Justice Department officials whom the Senate Judiciary Committee interviewed in the summer "all volunteered," Durbin told Insider. "We asked Mr. Clark, and he never accepted the invitation."

In addition to Meadows and Bannon, the committee has subpoenaed Daniel Scavino, the former deputy White House chief of staff for communications, and Kash Patel, a national security advisor whom Trump reportedly attempted to install as deputy CIA director late last year.

As Insider first reported, Trump advisors had also suggested Patel as a deputy FBI director, prompting Attorney General William Barr to threaten to resign if Trump went through with ousting FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Director David Bowdich. businessinsider.com/fbi-chris-wray…

Scavino (along with Stephen Miller and 12 others) continues to receive a federal paycheck as a staff member in Trump's post-presidential office, @rbravender for @thisisinsider reported last week. businessinsider.com/stephen-miller…

With Trump as president, House Ds watched their subpoenas become mired in court fights. Lawmakers investigating January 6 are so far staying out of that kind of slog. "Trump's strategy last time was just to litigate everything," said Stan Brand, a former top House lawyer.

The January 6 committee has prepared to pursue a variety of options if witnesses and others decline to cooperate. Its members, including Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, have discussed the possibility of holding reluctant witnesses in civil or criminal contempt.

"At the end of the day," Aguilar told Insider, "we want to get to the truth." Check out the full story from @cryanbarber w/ a @thisisinsider subscription. Sign up from here: businessinsider.com/donald-trump-j…